As we are experiencing a slow motion spring this year, the flowers are coming out slowly, one by one. First are the daffodils. lifting their bright yellow faces to the sky. Then the warm yellow of the forsythia is right behind.

Yesterday while driving, I noticed that there are two types of forsythia bushes: the wild and cultivated. The wild ones grow in odd shapes, often lopsided, and their blossoms tend to be thin.

Then there are the shaped ones, often in a neat hedge with a better covering of blossoms, not lopsided at all. Much more impressive.

Then I thought about how these represent two types of Christians. The “wild” ones float through life doing what they feel like, following their hearts or a momentary whim. “I’ll pray for you when you come to mind.” They can have spontaneous spurts of growth, but it is often lopsided. In the place of reading, studying and meditating on Scripture, the occasional conference or TV preacher gives them a high. And that is always followed with a low, gradually or suddenly.

The pruned ones are those who discipline themselves for godliness. They spend time in the Word, in personal worship and meditation. For them prayer is the undergirding activity in their lives. And like pruned forsythia, they are not only beautiful in the blossom time, but all the summer with their lush green leaves, and they also give grace and act as a hedge. As Jesus said in John 15, “every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Wild may be fun, but elf-control and obedience bring joy, perspective and fruitfulness. We get to choose.

Pictures: wild on left (it leans to the left) and cultivated on the right.