Pruning is not something we think about very often, and when we do, it is often seen in a negative light.  None of us likes to be cut back or cut off, cleared away or cleaned out.  And yet, it is often after times of intense pruning, that we experience periods of great growth.   In the early 1990’s, I pastored a small rural church in central Ohio.  It was farming country – -soybeans and corn to be exact – with its own internal vocabulary.  “Knee high by fourth of July” meant a good crop of corn in the fall.  “No till” meant there had been too much spring rain to get the tractors in the fields.  “Harvest time” had both spiritual and temporal relevance.  I could easily make the rounds every few months and visit the entire congregation.   I have fond memories of this special time.   Each time I read the gospel account of the vine and the branches, especially in John, with its focus on pruning, I think of the Shively family.  They were fourth generation German immigrants who farmed several hundred acres.  I always looked forward to visiting their home.  They had a large front porch and Mrs. Shively always wore a smile on her face.  We would sit on the porch and talk about family, church and community and I would get to taste her wonderful jellies and jams.  And I especially enjoyed visiting in the late summer, for then she would share with me some of her special homemade summer wine, made from grapes grown in the small vineyard behind their house.  I remember asking her one day about how to grow grapes.  I have never forgotten her response.  She said that the soil had to be conducive and the weather had to be cooperative, but the most important part of growing grapes was tending the vines – removing branches that produced no fruit, cleaning branches that were fruit-producing so they could get all the nourishment necessary to produce even more, and caring for the vine and branches after especially hard winters or stormy summers. “The key to good grapes,” she said, “is constant pruning.”  From personal experience, constant pruning is also the key to a good life – removing things that hinder us or hold us back, cutting out the dead, dying or disabling parts of our lives, allowing God, the divine gardener to tend to us as needed, not just when wanted.    With constant pruning, our lives can be like fine wine – healthy and robust, lived with a bold texture and a rich flavor .  Without constant pruning, we may end up simply being sold by the box.