Gardening in the Gospel....

Elder Hugh B. Brown, member of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for many years told of purchasing a rundown farm. One day he noticed a currant bush that had grown more than 6 feet high. The bush had no blossoms and currants. Having been raised on a fruit farm, he recognized the problem, got his pruning shears, and went to work. He clipped it back until there was nothing left but stumps.

"It was just coming daylight, and I thought I saw on top of each of these little stumps what appeared to be a tear, and I thought the currant bush was crying.... And I looked at it and smiled and said, 'What are you crying about?' You know, I thought I heard that currant bush say this:

"I was making such wonderful growth. I was almost as big as the shade tree and the fruit tree that are inside the fence, and now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look down on me because I didn't make what I should have made. How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here."

"I said, 'Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn't intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and someday, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, 'Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down, Thank you, Mr. Gardener.'"