The Currant Bush

I keep thinking about that currant bush. You may or may not be familiar with the story from several General Conferences ago. I think you can find it on YouTube with the title "The Will of God." Anyhow, I keep wondering if the currant bush had any say in what kind of plant it grew up to be. It seemed perfectly happy to grow as large as it could before the gardener came and pruned it down. And, yeah, with its smaller size, it produced more berries, but that still seems like a bit of a trade off. Yeah, the bush is now better in this one specific way, but it's also still worse in another way which the bush previously seemed to care about. Whether that's better or worse over all depends on which trait is valued more, and value is subjective. Also, I'm not sure whose opinion should or should not matter in making this evaluation. I keep thinking, sure, the gardener knows what he wants, but shouldn't we also care what the currant bush wants, especially since the currant bush is the one that's getting cut up?

Now, there are many ways to interpret the story charitably for the gardener. Maybe the currant bush was happier being productive than it had been when it was tall. Maybe the currant bush had chosen to be a productive, berry-producing currant bush before its physical form was created, and it had merely forgotten that it had wanted to be productive, perhaps because of some kind of veil of forgetfulness. Maybe, had the currant bush been properly informed and consulted on the matter, it would have consented to being pruned down, and maybe the gardener did consult with the currant bush, but that part was cut out of the story to save time. Maybe the gardener wasn't just some self-assured jerk enforcing his will on apparently sentient creatures, totally disregarding their will.

I can only hope that the currant bush was ultimately happier after its encounter with the gardener than it had been before it. And if I ever meet a gardener who "loves me enough to hurt me," I hope He also loves me enough to explain why hurting me is necessary and to get my permission before pruning me down.