Growing From Your Roots Up

Growing From Your Roots Up

Colossians 2:7 NLT

Let your roots flow down into him and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught and you will overflow with thankfulness.

   Working around some bushes at work I found a maple tree.  It was not a very impressive tree, it looked like a stick that got lost and was trying to hide between the bushes.  It was maybe six inches tall and as thick as a piece of spaghetti.  It had two leaves sticking to a single branch growing from the top. 

   I dug down to get the root out and was surprised to see how deep that root went.  I decided to save it and went and got a pot and stuck the little tree in it and covered the root with dirt and watered it.  That afternoon when I left I took it home and planted it out back of the house we rent.  I put a small fence around it and hoped it would survive.    

   Well, it didn’t die.  Its root must have grown and worked its way down into the rich dirt and water.  That little twig is now more than ten feet tall and its trunk in more than eight inches wide.  Those two leaves on one branch are now hundreds of leaves on dozens of branches.  The lesson here is about the root of the tree.  When planting a tree, the important part is the health of the root system, not the size of the trunk.  If the tree has a healthy root system, it has the best chance to grow to maturity.

   I had the good fortune to have a good root system in my life.  Christian parents who took me to church when I was nine days old, I grew up in a church pew.  Whenever the pastor went to open the church for a service, he had to push past my mother and grandmother to get to the door.  I sat through hundreds of Sunday school classes.  By the time I was a teen I’d already heard the story of most of the Bible characters and memorized dozens of Bible verses.  As a child, I wanted to skip some of the first steps of growth and jump straight into maturity, but growth takes time and watering. 

   The Bible tells us to build a foundation in Christ.  A good foundation allows Christians to sink roots into God’s Word and grow in truth and develop strong faith.  Without this foundation, it is impossible to grow strong.  It is important as followers of Christ to plant our roots deep in the truth of Jesus.  We need to embrace the Word of God and let it water our roots and feed our souls.  When the storms of the world come blowing in, you can stand if you are firmly rooted in Christ.  If your roots are shallow, you are vulnerable to the storms of life.  And in times of drought, deep roots will be able to find the water that lies deep below the surface.  Shallow roots will not touch this water and the tree can wither and dry out.

  When we are being watered and fed by God’s Word, we will grow into maturity.  A mature Christian will produce fruit in their life much like a mature tree produce good fruit.  So let your roots sink deeply into Christ and let yourself grow. And like that old Sunday school song says, “Read your Bible and pray every day and you’ll grow, grow, grow.”

Stephen Cram                                                                               June 16, 2013                     

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ. Colossians 2:8