Rooted in Love

By Marilyn Travis

I’ve been sitting here in my corner of the house staring out the window, wondering what on Earth I could write about for this week’s devotional topic. It took me quite some time, I’m sorry to admit, before I asked the Lord to please help me out. After praying, more time passed……. So, barring any sudden brainstorms from the Lord, I just stared at the beautiful blue spruce in our front yard that spans the entire width of the view from my seat. I can only see the bottom third of the tree from where I’m sitting. Thirty years ago, when we moved into the house, this same tree stood six feet tall. We hoped it would survive. Now it is one of the most beautiful trees in Elizabeth. Suddenly, like a thunderstorm creeping closer from far away, it hit me! The tree! Trees are important to God. The Lord had been helping me for some time – I just didn’t hear Him! If only I had practiced aligning myself with God like this week’s Sunday School session taught us, I wouldn’t have missed the message!

Back to the tree.

According to Matthew Sleeth, "Trees are mentioned in the Bible more than any living thing other than God and people. And every major character has a tree associated with it...There's a tree on the first page of Genesis, the first Psalm, the first page of the New Testament and the last page of Revelation. Whether it is the fall, the flood, or the overthrow of the Pharaoh, every major event in the Bible has a tree marking the spot."

I'm not going to touch base on all of the above references, but now I'm seriously considering exploring the significance of trees in the Bible more thoroughly in my personal studies! No, I'd like to go back to our initial concern about whether our little six-foot tree would thrive.

Jeremiah 17:5-8

"This is what the Lord says: Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."

God wants us to be like a healthy, strong tree, rooted in His Spirit, fed by the living water of His Word. Our tree's branches blow in the wind, strain under the weight of heavy snow, and sometimes a branch will break with the stress. However, the tree itself stands strong, deeply rooted. If we align ourselves with God, acknowledging He is the source of our strength, our very life, and He alone can sustain us, then we can be like the tree, weathering the storms that come our way, and growing stronger and more deeply rooted each day.

Last week, Brooke Momblow suggested we pray the Scriptures. This passage is one of her suggestions. Let's pray together:

Ephesians 3:16-19

I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Amen!