Trees

I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.--John 15:1

A certain tree farmer has taken the time to show me all the procedures involved in harvesting almonds. I have decided that the strenuous effort involved in bearing fruit does indeed rest on the shoulders of the gardener, whose job it is to prune, level the land, water, fertilize, mow, and out-and-out baby the trees in the hope that all conditions will be perfect for the trees to accomplish what they do naturally in God’s order, bear fruit!It is interesting to note that when the trees are laden with almonds, a steel arm grasps the trunk of the tree, an umbrella-type contraption is inverted under the tree, and the arm shakes the tree until it provides the gardener with his hard-earned fruit. 

God does it all. We need only attain to what believers do naturally as we are tended to, and sometimes God must shake us to get the fruit that is His.