Thought for the Week: Being Gardened by God – 16th October 2026

As I write this thought for the week, I reflect on Harvest time. For many of us we will have just celebrated, or be about to celebrate, Harvest in our church communities. I have been brought to the passage in John 15: 1-8, The Vine and the Branches:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."

So each of us is being gardened by God. We are being pruned as individuals and as churches, and we need to recognise that this is the way of God. It is a good thing. I personally am not a great gardener. In fact it would be true to say simply, I do not garden. My skills in the garden extend to moving furniture and digging holes. However, those who garden will tell you that pruning is a way of cutting back to help flowers and trees to grow. This is the same in God’s garden. He prunes us so that we may grow and bear fruit, becoming better disciples. Similarly he does this with our churches cutting back what we do, so more effort can be put into the right activities. As humans we often resist this cutting back but as Christians we should welcome it and follow Jesus’ model of accepting that sometimes there is need to do different things or do the same things in different ways.

So I ask you are we wedded to doing the same thing day after day, week after week noting ‘we have always done it that way’ or are we open to being pruned by the Great Gardener, ready to bear greater fruit?

Alan Johnston

Licensed Lay Minister