There has been much industry in our garden today. Veggie seedlings have arrived at Crabapple House with baby promises of summer and autumn harvests. Even with gloves on, I've managed to blacken my fingernails into something the most ardent of gardeners would admire. But in the midst of celebrated additions, rotting manure and hammering in of pea trellises... we had to cull a favourite bush.
My rosemary plant, grand sentinel of the herb garden, gave up her spot for a trio of smaller herbs eager to flourish. Poor rosemary... she'd filled and spilled over her corner spot for six years and desperately needed a pruning. Hacked right back, she frightened us. All that remained resembled the gnarled fingers of some fairytale witch, and not at all in keeping with the tender leaves around her.
So we dug her out and threw her away. But not before I took a healthy cluster of cuttings. My hope, is these young tips will enjoy the next few weeks in a kitchen water-jar. If all goes as God allows we will soon have roots on these slips, and little rosemaries will live another day.
Sometimes God allows us to flourish in one place for a season. Then He moves us on to somewhere else, and only He can fathom the why. I've had moments in life where I thought I'd found a niche and made myself comfortable. But God always knows better. When He sees us faltering and in need of a prune, He brings in the best surgical secateurs. Sometimes we just need a healthy trimming of all that's getting in our way. Other times God transplants us to a new garden plot. Unpleasant enough in the uprooting but vital for our development. And then there are days when He splits us into pieces. Not to harm us, but to refine us. To strip us down to our tender-most shoots, and give us another chance to bloom.
I hope to have a dozen healthy rosemarie plants by Christmas. Some I'll keep, others I'd like to share with friends. Only complete surrender to my pruning shears allows that hope. And only complete surrender to God allows the shaping of our hearts.
Do you need to allow God to snip something from your life? To deal with the dry twigs keeping you from growing as you should. Is He calling you to surrender?
Blessings for a wonderful weekend, dear friends.
(photo source - the murmuring cottage)
