Submitting to the Arborist

 

Orchard trees are not a natural shape.  If you've driven through Wenatchee you know how unnatural a tree can be!

If a tree had a choice, would it submit itself to the arborist's knife?  Would it want to say "Let me throw off restraint; let me grow into the tree I was MEANT to be"?

Do submit yourself to the knife.  Pleasant and comfortable, natural growth . . . that doesn't produce the best fruit.  The arborist loves you and wants you to become all that you can become, and that's not wild and unpruned growth.

John 15:2

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.