Children's Bible Ministry of Connecticut, USA

A Previous Message

Roots

Someone has said that the greatest force in the natural world is growth and the noblest example of that force is a tree. A tree springs up from just a tiny seed. It can split rock and can soar skyward a hundred feet and more. Consider the California redwoods that may grow to 350 feet or more! A tree draws water against gravity and spreads at last in an architecture of boughs and twigs, living to the outermost leaf.

One naturalist said that if a plant had a brain it would lie in its roots. Deep in the earth they seek and find and dodge and pry. Their delicate tips wear a sort of helmet called a root cap which penetrates the soil with a spiral motion like that of a corkscrew. Meeting an obstacle such as a rock, they might go around it, or push it aside, or even crack it open by dissolving it with acids that they can make.

Like a mirror image of the tree above, the underground growth has first a taproot which is like the trunk, then huge primary branches, then more slender secondaries, and slimmer tertiaries. From these slant off thousands of Aobliques@ and these send out millions of hair fine capillaries. Clustering near the tips of capillaries are even finer root hairs by the billion.

It is only through the root hairs that the tree can Adrink.@ All the rest of it is practically waterproof. So, in a drought, don=t water your tree friend at the base of the trunk, but carry your hose out under the outermost branches where the root hairs are thickest.

Just as the root system of a tree fixes and anchors it in the ground and supplies it with nourishment for life, people need roots for their lives. We need something to fix and settle our lives, something to provide strength and stability, something to anchor us when the winds of trouble and test and disappointment blow.

God has given us the unchangeable counsel of His eternal Word by which we can know Him. God wants to be the Rock of our Salvation, a foundation stone, to fix and steady our lives, to give us hope (a sure, confident, settled expectation of good.) Hebrews 6:19 calls it an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.

God wants to nourish our lives with His own Life. He is our living Water, doing for our souls what water does for our bodies. Nobody can do for you what the living God can do. Are you related to Him through faith in the crucified and risen Son of God? Be rooted in Him and thus be built up, solid, stable, fruitful person.

How are your roots, that underneath part of your life? What is your foundation for living? How is your support system?

My Hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' Name.

On Christ, the solid rock I stand--
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

                    --Edward Mote

If I can be of help to you in knowing the Lord
or if you would like to write me a note write to:

"Mister Steve"