Tuesday’s Reading – John 15:1-17

Devotion by Mauro Galati

Yes, trees indeed do grow in Brooklyn… but I never had to prune one, not even a bush. That is, not until I moved to Lancaster. I would do a fast job with my hedge trimmer; however, maybe if I had read John 15 first I’d have gotten better results.

I think what Jesus is telling us here is that he cares very much how we progress in life and that he will do whatever is necessary to make sure we will turn out alright. He knows what needs to be done – what needs to be cut out or just trimmed. The question is will we let him?  A tree can’t move away the gardener… but we can.  We have nothing to fear if we are his.  He has already cleansed us and placed us in his garden. His love for us never changes even if ours may wane. Our Lord does delight in our saying or singing about our love for him. But I think he is also saying in these in these verses that our love for one another delights him even more. We can never love the same as Jesus, but if we let him have his way with us, If we open ourselves up to his pruning, we can come awfully close.