One thing I enjoy about summertime is picking time with the kids. We have blueberry bushes and raspberry bushes. I have tried and been unsuccessful with strawberries. For the last several years, I have wanted to get blackberry bushes as well, but haven't had the opportunity to buy, plant, and care for them.
We have had plenty of outside work to do besides working on cultivating a new plant. There are tons of weeds popping up everywhere. Poison ivy creeps in along the ground with runners making their way up trees. Brambles with long, painful thorns crop up near the trees. This can be an arduous task.
About a week and a half ago, I was outside doing some clearing and pruning by the blueberry bushes that had grown too high and thrust out branches so far I couldn't get to the berries above nor to the weeds underneath. As much as I relish the taste of fresh blueberries, I haven't been able to pick any due to the fact that they had grown to be about 12 feet high. I couldn't reach the ripe fruit. The birds have been able to feast on them, but I was determined that my family will as well.
In the middle of all the pruning and weed whacking, I kept coming across this little bramble with odd-shaped leaves and thorns. This thing had popped up everywhere! It was under my blueberries, in the middle of my yard with the grass, and on the opposite side of my house next to the hibiscus. It seemed like an infestation.
My mom has developed quite a green thumb, so I showed her this pest and asked her what it was and how to get rid of it. She took one look at it and gave me the name of this unwelcome intruder. Blackberry. The very same plant I have been considering buying is the very one I was trying to evict from my yard.
If I had continued under my own wisdom, I would have lost the treasure that I have longed for, that was right under my nose this whole time. I would have cut it all down,lost it of my own volition, and I would have had to wait even longer for my blackberries.
Sometimes it takes a little external guidance to reap what I would like to sow. Sometimes I miss out because I do not have a clear picture of what is as opposed to how I think it should be. When I stop and trust the expert of my soul, who knows how I am knit together and recognizes me, who sees all the thorns and yet lovingly works to cultivate me, I will be able to bear the fruit that He desires of me.
Sometimes I need to just trust the caretaker of my soul to do what He needs to do so I can be fully productive in this life. Sometimes I need pruning in order to keep me from wearing myself out trying to reach the sun. I need that extra help to keep me where I need to be in order to be able to flower as I was meant to blossom.
