Roots

Last week I finally got around to doing a job that I dislike and usually put off as long as I can. I moved all of my plants into the greenhouse for winter. By this time of the year I am tired of gardening and want a break. There is, however, this one final job that has to be done to wrap up the growing year.

One of the plants that I moved into the greenhouse was a big, old philodendron. From the spot where it sat all summer on the edge of our patio, it had grown many spreading, gangly branches that reached out and over most of the plants around it. I had often marveled at how green and healthy it had remained all summer. It was such a big plant in such a relatively small pot.

When I got around to moving it into the greenhouse, I discovered why it had done so well. It was not limited to that small pot at all. Like it often does, from its stem it had put out roots that snaked their way several feet along the surface of the patio to run behind the coke case, off the concrete, and deep into the heart of the earth. It was not drawing all of its nourishment from that pot at all. It had tapped into the resources of the whole earth.

We could learn from such a plant. Sometimes we try to sustain our lives with the resources that we find in the small containers in which we find ourselves. As a result of that, we are often stunted and but a shadow of the persons we could be. We often overlook the critical roots of life and the boundless resources of God that are available.

Nothing is more critical to the way life develops than our roots. In spite of that, we often neglect them.

Plato remarked that man is the opposite of a tree; he stands on his branches with his roots in the air. We have a penchant for turning life upside down. We invest too heavily in things of little value and overlook the essential.

Before plants can produce much significant fruit or foliage, they have to develop their root system. The great old preacher and Bible expositor Donald Grey Barnhouse once said, “If I had only three years to serve the Lord, I would spend two of them studying and preparing.”

That is what Jesus did—except He spent an even larger percentage of His life in growth and preparation. He had 33 years to live, and He spent 30 of them preparing. We traditionally call the years between the time that He was 12 and 30 “the silent years.” Fred Craddock said, “Of course they were the silent years—you can’t hear roots growing.”

Paul said, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him” (Col. 2:6-7a).” We find our strength and sustaining grace in Him. Phillip Gulley has two sons. He wrote, “I’m going to pray that my sons’ roots grow deep, so they can draw strength from the hidden sources of the eternal God.” It would be a good prayer for us to pray for ourselves and for those whom we love.