“Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.�?�?John 6:37

My friend works for a local fruit company and has years of experience in pruning trees, so I asked him to help me trim two ornamental pear trees located in front of my house. Also, I had several chokecherry trees along my fence which needed to be topped out. It was a great deal of work, and we were pleased when it was all done. However, we created a huge pile of branches and limbs in the driveway which needed to be ground into mulch and hauled away. In the mail that day was a solicitation from a tree service that advertized chipping and hauling. Thinking it quite handy, I called for a bid.

When the gentleman arrived, he looked at our pruning job and then startled me by saying, “I wouldn't even want to park the company vehicle in front of a pruning job like that.�?Well, I did not respond, except to say to myself that he had certainly never read the book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People.�?I thought our pruning job was all right, but this man apparently had another opinion!

Later, I called another company that was happy to have the work, and it was all settled. However, the incident did not pass without reminding me of what happens when we ask Christ to work in our lives. We come to Christ as individuals who have a specific need: peace in our hearts. Usually, we have already tried in our own wisdom to meet that need, and perhaps have done well enough to suit ourselves. However, Christ is an expert in the field of cleaning up lives. He can see the areas that are still lacking, though we and others may not.

The trees in my yard are mostly there for aesthetic purposes; the pear trees bear no fruit and chokecherries are certainly not a mainstay of our diet. Hence, my yard work is targeted at appearances only. However, when Jesus prunes our lives, He does so with the purpose of cultivating fruit. In trying to repair our own lives, we may focus on beauty and conformity more than fruitfulness, but Christ is a Husbandman interested in producing fruit. If we are not bearing fruit, He looks deep into the thoughts and intents of our hearts to fix the problem at its root. He might leave a tree or vine looking quite diminished temporarily, but as time passes, there will be fruit.

No matter how spoiled our past, how snarled our present, or how hopeless our future looks, when we call on God, He will in no wise cast us out. He is more than happy to remake our lives into something beautiful. Call Him today; He will not be ashamed to do work in your life, if you will let Him!