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『我父是栽培的人。』（約十五章一節）
臨到我們的各種苦難，都是父神的使者，受父神的差遣，送禮物來給我們的；我們如果知道這個，就會得安慰了。雖然，照屬世的眼光看來，苦難似乎是傷害我們、毀滅我們的；但是照屬靈的眼光看來，苦難卻是產生祝福的。我們永不該忘記：救恩－世上最大的祝福－乃是世上最大痛苦的結果。所以每一次我們受到神嚴厲的修剪，刀雖然割得深，痛雖然刺得劇，但是一想到『我父是栽培的人』，立刻會得到說不盡的安慰。
文生博士（Dr. Vincent）在一個掛滿了葡萄的花房裡講說他的故事：『我的園丁新來的時候，告訴我說，這些葡萄籐若不一起割光，祗留下籐莖的話，他對它們一點辦法都沒有了；我就讓他去割；兩年來我們一粒葡萄也喫不到，可是到了今年，竟長得這般豐滿。』
讓我們拿這個故事來解釋基督人受修剪的經過。修剪好像把葡萄籐剪壞了，園丁好像把葡萄籐割光了；但是他所顧念的是將來，他知道修剪的結果會使它的生命更豐盛，它的果子更饒多。
有很多祝福，若不出代價，是永遠得不到的。－密勒（Dr. Miller）
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“My Father is the husbandman.” (John 15:1.)
It is comforting to think of trouble, in whatever form it may come to us, as a heavenly messenger, bringing us something from God. In its earthly aspect it may seem hurtful, even destructive; but in its spiritual out-working it yields blessing. Many of the richest blessings which have come down to us from the past are the fruit of sorrow or pain. We should never forget that redemption, the world’s greatest blessing, is the fruit of the world’s greatest sorrow. In every time of sharp pruning, when the knife is deep and the pain is sore, it is an unspeakable comfort to read, “My Father is the husbandman.”
Doctor Vincent tells of being in a great hothouse where luscious clusters of grapes were hanging on every side. The owner said, “When my new gardener came, he said he would have nothing to do with these vines unless he could cut them clean down to the stalk; and he did, and we had no grapes for two years, but this is the result.”
There is rich suggestiveness in this interpretation of the pruning process, as we apply it to the Christian life. Pruning seems to be destroying the vine, the gardener appears to be cutting it all away; but he looks on into the future and knows that the final outcome will be the enrichment of its life and greater abundance of fruit.
There are blessings we can never have unless we are ready to pay the price of pain. There is no way to reach them save through suffering.
--- Dr. Miller.
“I walked a mile with Pleasure, She chattered all the way; But left me none the wiser For all she had to say.
“I walked a mile with Sorrow, And ne’er a word said she; But, oh, the things I learned from her When sorrow walked with me.”
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