I don’t know if trees can feel pain or not. If they can, windstorms like the ones we had Saturday and Sunday must be downright agonizing. All that swishing and swaying and bending and the breaking. Aw, man, the breaking! That must be an ache all the way to the roots!

Compared to the jagged edges and long splintering rips of limbs being torn away, pruning must surely be less painful. Probably still not fun, though. Snip, snip, cut, cut.

You know how it goes in our own lives, right? The stress and tension of new dimensions of trials and testings? The tearing away or rooting out of attitudes, habits, and inclinations that run counter to our bearing the fruit of the Spirit? The Lord’s pruning removing what isn’t productive and the Spirit nudging us in better direction?

Those things are not usually pleasant or fun, agreed, but they do produce new growth. So, when you’re feeling a bit frustrated, remember who’s working on you, in you, through you, and for you. And keep in mind, too, that it’s this year’s growth that produces next year’s peaches.