bearing fruit

I've been reading Streams in the Desert, and nearly every day there is something in there that resonates so deeply with me and speaks right to my heart. There has been some major pruning going on in my life lately. It's far from fun, but I know it's necessary.

It is the branch that bears the fruit, that feels the knife,

To prune it for a larger growth, a fuller life.
Though every budding twig be lopped,

And every grace of swaying tendril,

springing leaf, be lost a space.
O thou whose life of joy seems reft, of beauty shorn;
Whose aspirations lie in dust, all bruised and torn,
Rejoice, tho’ each desire, each dream,

Each hope of thine shall fall and fade;

It is the hand of Love Divine that holds the knife,

That cuts and breaks with tenderest touch,
That thou, whose life has borne some fruit

May’st now bear much.

–Annie Johnson Flint

John 15: 1-11

Hebrews 12:11