Making Us Suitable

Do you remember my huge gardening mistake?

This morning, I look out the window and remember how difficult it was for me to remove all the blossoms and young fruit from my blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries that first season.  I didn't understand it!  I didn't want to wait!  But I learned this:  

This counter-intuitive and destructive move would make my plants thrive.  If I take away the fruit, the plant directs the energy and nutrients to the most important part of the plant: the root system.  A new berry plant needs a few years to make an indestructible foundation of roots. 

I walk out to the garden and notice the morning dew on the strawberries.

The berry patch has tripled--maybe quadrupled-- in size.  My deliberate attempts to diminish these plants by removing the fruit worked.  

Even the raspberries come back larger and more abundant.  This bush was one shoot last summer. 
 

I'll never forget this.  What looks like a fruitless season--cut short, wasteful, damaged, stolen--is preparation for abundance.  We are being made ready and suitable in advance.  My roots are being nourished and strengthened to support what's coming next.  It may take a year or two (even three), but it's God's preparation for the fruit to come.

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Journal:  Do you feel like you are in a season of preparation?