Every Branch

There is a large redbud in our backyard. I am as proud of that tree as if I had tended and trained it like a two-foot-tall bonsai. For almost half of the 20 years that we’ve lived in our home, the health of the redbud has been a perennial topic of conversation. I don’t know how long it was here before we moved in, but it was already larger than the redbuds that lined nearby streets and the section of Indian Creek trail that runs through our neighborhood.

It’s the coolest tree I’ve ever seen; or I should say, it was the coolest. Each of its large branches twist and curl out more sideways than upright, creating a beautiful, gnarly sculpture. The crown of small, heart shaped leaves make such a pretty canopy for light to filter through. Over time, hard winters and brutal summers have taken their toll. In one particularly ferocious spring storm, a limb from the neighbor’s giant oak crashed right through the center of the redbud and took out the center limb. It was devastating. In the years since, we’ve continued to prune it carefully, the crown becoming an ever-smaller circle. Each spring when she puts on her breathtaking purple robe, we are so grateful that we’ll get another season of shade and dappled light.

Just last week, when the string of 100 plus degree days finally broke, we knew it was time to part with another limb that was sinking lower and lower due to a crack that had formed near the trunk. Pruning is inevitable and necessary. I dreaded it, to see the limb gone and the tree diminished. Strangely though, now that it’s been gone for a few days, the dread has been replaced with a new appreciation for what remains. Hopefully, the old redbud will live to see another few seasons, now that all that energy from the sun and rain can go to forming next spring’s display, rather than trying to hold on to what used to be.

“Every branch in me that does not bear fruit God takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit God prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” John 15:2

Holy One,

Thank you for the gift of the redbud in our yard, for its beauty and the shade it provides. Thanks, too, for the lesson in the difficult work of pruning what no longer bears fruit, so that something new and healthy can grow.

Amen

Eli is looking forward to cooler temperatures, especially since pruning the redbud is just the beginning of the fall cleanup of the flowerbeds and planters in the weeks ahead.