Winter Pruning

January 19, 2025

I’m back in Italy for my final semester!! I can’t believe I’ve called Piacenza “home” for a whole year and a half already. Crazy! I got to spend four weeks back at home home (America) over the holidays and it was such a sweet time with family and friends. We celebrated Christmas and birthdays and weddings and babies and lives lived well. I visited the islands and the mountains and watched basketball games and read books by the fire and had coffee dates with buddies and played lots of Dutch Blitz.

I flew back here last weekend (my roomie made dinner and then made my bed so I could just chill when I got back after 23 hours of travelling—I think I’ll like living with a friend). For the past week I’ve been adjusting to my new apartment, trying to conquer jetlag and a cold that’s been hanging on for three weeks, and slowly figuring out a rhythm for the coming semester.

It’s currently pruning season in the vineyards. I’m not working in a vineyard at the moment, but many of my friends are doing research with our school and are going through the vines, discarding any branches that won’t be very fruitful, and pruning ones that have good potential so that when harvest season comes, they’ll bear good fruit.

I’ve only spent a couple hours of my life pruning, so I am no expert, but I do know there are a lot of things to consider when pruning! You have to know what type of pruning you’re doing. If you’re spur pruning, have to count how many shoots you want to keep on the vines (usually around 6 or 7, equally spaced, then you fully cut away all the rest), then you have to count 3 nodes on each shoot and cut in between nodes 3 and 4. If you’re cane pruning you want to cut away last year’s fruiting canes, use a new fruiting cane that will produce this year’s grapes, and cut a couple replacement spurs that will be used as next year’s fruiting canes, planning for the future.

Now, will the vine still produce fruit if it isn’t pruned? Sure. But will it be good? Probably not. You’d have too many grapes competing for nutrients! It would be better to have fewer, healthier clusters. Pruning is a painful process! But it makes for healthier vines.

I think it’s fun how January is not only winter pruning season for vines, but for people. We all have things we want to leave behind in last year as well as things we want to bring into the new year. Some of us might have a list of resolutions or goals. Some of us might just have a word we are focused on. Some of us might just have the thought “this year, I’ll be better!” but have no real plan behind it. This year, I’m thinking about myself as a branch on a vine. What do I want to cut out of my life? And what do I want to prune?

Now, cutting away shoots means getting down to the very base of them and removing them completely from the vine.

This year, I’m trying to cut away things like negative self-talk and idleness.

Pruning means carefully counting the good things you want to keep growing and working on, then cutting away the rest. It’s a way of simplifying! Then when harvest season comes, the pruned branches will be full of good and healthy fruit.

For pruning, I’m thinking of the goals I have and the baby steps I need to take to see them through to harvest.

For example: My sister and I want to run a full marathon this year! So while I could just run and run and hope I don’t get injured, I’m going to slow down a bit and strip down to the basics by focusing on strength and stretching, so that my body stays healthy while I slowly build up to running greater distances.

A deeper example: As I mentioned before, I’m trying to cut away idleness this year. But at the same time, I know rest is important! And reading books is not a bad thing! But being jobless for the past year and a half has turned me into a bit of a sloth. So, while I’m cutting away my metaphorical idle branch, I will be pruning my rest branch. I’ll leave a few buds on there; I’ll keep taking a day of rest every week, I’ll read brain-enhancing books instead of just brain-rotting ones, and I’ll enjoy more quiet walks.

Pruning is such a great metaphor for life!

But even more important than pruning branches, to have healthy fruit you also need to have a solid vine and good soil. You can’t produce fruit without good roots!

In John 15, Jesus says“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me…” A few sentences later he says, “remain in my love”.

Ephesians 3:17-18 says “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”

So as we are in a new year, and a new season of pruning, remember how loved you are. I believe we are all loved dearly by our Creator. Be rooted in love! And give yourself so much grace, even when you slip up on any goals you might have. Let this pruning season be one of healthy simplification! Cutting away distractions, focusing on the little things that make big impacts, and being rooted in the confidence that you are loved!!