The Parable of our Cherry Blossom Tree

The Parable of our Cherry Blossom Tree

We have a cherry blossom tree in our garden. I remember looking out at it a couple of years ago. It was really quite big and its branches reached out in all kinds of directions.

But last year the guy who cuts our hedges pruned this tree. When I saw what he had done I was shocked. Because it hadn’t just been pruned back. It had been drastically cut back.
But he knew what he was doing. He said to Zarina and I ‘It will grow back’.
Last year (March 2020) the life of our church was cut back. Like so many things within wider society that pruning was sudden and on hindsight really quite shocking. All the things we had been doing and all the things we were used to were suddenly cut back; drastically cut back.
But living things grow back and our cherry blossom tree is growing back. It’s a different size that it once was. It’s a different shape than it once was, and it is going to be a different shape.
But it’s living and it’s growing.
This morning in Ballyhenry as we remembered the death of the Lord Jesus in bread and wine, we welcomed new members into the life of our church family. We have been pruned back. The shape of our life together already looks different than it has in the past. However today we were reminded that in God's goodness we are part of something that is living and growing. He knows what He is doing.