I pruned a tree right outside the mudroom door. Before I bought it many years ago, I made sure it was a species that would stay small since it’s in a narrow area next to the house. In the beginning, I was very diligent about cutting it back each fall so that it wouldn’t be up against the overhang. Like many amazing intentions in life, there have been years when the task of taking care of that tree fell by the wayside.
It’s a lot like our personal, good intentions not becoming realized.

I know how imperative it is to continually cut dead branches off trees.
How often do you prune out of your life what is diseased? 

Those branches, I learned many years ago, affect the overall health of the tree. So, after not paying attention to the tree at all last year, I realized that I owed it the tender love care it deserved.
How often do you not give yourself the tender loving care you deserve?

There were a lot of dead branches, leaves that had browned, and an overall sense of “why have you abandoned me?”
Just like we sometimes feel abandoned.

In that pruning process, I discovered a birds’ nest. Birds had decided to build a home amidst the tree with dead branches. If I hadn’t decided to prune it, I wouldn’t have seen that birds’ nest. If I hadn’t seen that birds’ nest it wouldn’t have triggered this train of thought that brings me back to the little things that are enormous in the reality of life. I wouldn’t have been reminded, again, about birth amongst death. I wouldn’t have looked at the under-pruned tree as a lesson.

How often do you decide to “prune back” because your life has become overgrown—not tied into what’s most important; simply existing with all the gunk that’s taking it down?

How often do you allow the dead branches to just stay there, attached to you even though they are sucking the life out of you?

How often is God building you a new, safe nest that you simply ignore instead of nurturing it by seeing it among the decayed?

Each year the birds flock to the trees. They make new nests. They “make new”. Maybe we’re missing something. Maybe it’s time for us to “make new.”

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