Pruning season

A little over a month ago, on an unseasonably warm weekend, I got out and pruned our two apple trees. I found it to be a very enjoyable activity, as I examined every branch and decided where to make a cut to encourage the sort of growth that would be beneficial in the future. Both trees can be seen in this photo, the one in the foreground being a Honey crisp, and the one in the background a Zestar, both bred in Minnesota by the university.  I was very pleased with the outcome of the Honeycrisp;  the Zestar had become much taller and I was hesitant to take too much off in one season, so I think I will consider this a two season pruning venture.    Both trees were very prolific last year, but they had too many blossoms and set clusters of three or more fruits, which tended to stay small and drop early.  I did some thinning last summer, but not nearly enough, and I need to be more persistent this year if we are to harvest larger apples.   Two years ago we had a good crop, but the squirrels seemed to like to take a chomp out of each one and leave the rest, which attracted hornets and other insects that left much of the fruit unusable.  Last year I put mesh down under the tree, which seemed to keep the squirrels out, but we still had the problem of small malformed fruit.   I think I have the solution to many small fruits (pruning and thinning) and am willing to accept some blemishes if I can avoid spraying.

There are some obvious spiritual analogies to all this--the Gospel of John tells us that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, and that the Father, the Vinedresser, prunes us that we may bear fruit.  I thought of this quite a lot as I was engaged in the pruning exercise.    I believe that the way God prunes us is through trials, illness, discipline, and setbacks.   We can either accept these things as being from the hand of a loving Father, and thus bear much fruit, or complain and reject these events as being the work of the adversary.    I feel I can come to this conclusion, because the Master Gardener doesn't only just prune, but also waters, feeds, and gives abundant sunshine.  In my experience the Master Gardener is also quite tolerant of the blemished fruit I bear, and for this I am quite grateful, and can learn patience with others from His example.