Heart to Heart

An Apple Orchard Lesson

Joni Eareckson Tada

My Uncle Don tends an apple orchard in the hills of western Maryland. The last time I visited him was in the spring of 1967 during grafting time. My help was needed. My uncle would run his hand over the bark of an apple tree to find the right place to peel it away. He’d reach into his pocket, open his razor-sharp knife, and make a deep, slanting cut into the heart of the wood. He’d then angle-cut a twig and push the graft deep into the damp, fresh wedge in the tree, edge to edge.

Weeks later, new life would emerge: blossoms to bud to fruit—an abundance of apples.

Psalm 92:13 describes this prize-winning fruit, “Planted in the house of the LORD, [the righteous] will flourish in the courts of our God.” To flourish is to enjoy an abundance of fruit in your life. It will only happen through a wounding—a pruning, slicing, or cutting. I should know. The spring of 1967 when I visited the orchard was only weeks before I broke my neck in a diving accident. It was a terrible wounding, but looking back, God wanted my heart and soul, root, bud, and branch, blossom, sun, rain, and soil. At first, I wondered, “God, what are you doing?!” I would soon learn that God grafts those He loves, especially if He wants them to bear an abundance of fruit.

Years later I would see myself in the words of John Bunyan, “Growth in Christ is not the smooth, easygoing process some men seem to think .... It is wounding work, this cutting and breaking of the hearts. But without wounding there is no saving.... Where there is grafting of something lesser into the greater, there will always be a cutting, for the graft must be let in with a wound. To stick it onto the outside or to tie it on with a string would be of no use. Heart must be set to heart and edge to edge, or there will be no life; no sap from root to branch to bud and flower to fruit. And this, I say, must be done by a wound.”

So many things in my life seem to be accomplished through a wound. Not long ago, I could not sleep, as I was struggling at 2:00 a.m. with chronic pain. Out of nowhere, Uncle Don’s apple orchard came to mind. Lying there, I envisioned the metaphor in John 15:1-2 where Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener…. every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, so that it will be even more fruitful…. Remain in me, and I will remain in you.” I did just that, and by 3:00 a.m. my panic had eased, and I was asleep.

Consider this your apple orchard lesson for the day. If you are struggling through a painful trial, allow God to set your heart against the wounded heart of Christ, pushing you deeper into the breast of Jesus. He’s the vine; you are a branch. It is a constant abiding. It is you, painfully grafted into the branch of the Lord.

Charles Spurgeon sums it up, saying, “It is a mark of great grace to be able to comply in tribulation; to be able to welcome it and say, ‘Oh, the Lord is elevating me to the upper class in His school—to teach me some deeper truths that I have not yet learned…to work in my heart some new grace which has never been there before!’”

Do not be the rigid twig that stiffens against the sharp edge of suffering’s knife. It may feel painful but lean into it. Abide. Be wedged against Christ, heartto-heart. For you are no longer His acquaintance, but His most prized of disciples. And when an abundance of fruit—love, joy, peace, gentleness, and kindness— finally sweetens your suffering, you can thank your wise and skilled Vinedresser.

“He’s the vine; you are a branch. It is a constant abiding.”

Joni Eareckson Tada is an esteemed Christian author, artist, and a respected global leader in disability ministry and advocacy. Although a 1967 diving accident left her a quadriplegic, she emerged from rehabilitation with a determination to help others with similar disabilities. Joni serves as CEO of Joni and Friends, a Christian organization which promotes support services for thousands of special-needs families around the world. She and her husband, Ken, live in Calabasas, Calif. joniandfriends.org % response@joniandfriends.org