September 24 - Every Man Ministries

Roots

When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. ––Matthew 13:19-23

I love the clean white trunk of the aspen tree, and the way its leaves quietly shimmer like silver in the breeze. I recently learned that there’s a grove of quaking aspen trees in southern Utah that has the largest root system of any trees on Earth. Called the Pando Aspen Clone, it’s considered a single tree comprised of 47,000 aspens across 106 acres that have genetically identical “stems” connected by a gigantic underground root system. Referred to by some scientists as simply the Pando, the interconnectedness makes it a unique example of a single, clonal organism with a vast and extensive root system. If you were to lay out the roots end-to-end, they would stretch 12,000 miles (or half way around the globe).

The Pando is a great word picture for God’s Church—the Body of Christ worldwide:

Every believer’s root system—the Savior—is the same.
We are called to be “mini Christs” designed to mimic the Savior in our thoughts and actions.
Our “roots” (our spirits) are nourished by the same source (the Holy Spirit), though each of us is entirely unique (like a tree in a grove, no two trees exactly the same).
This system—God’s Kingdom—supports the other members of the tree (a great picture of the fellowship of believers).

Jeremiah emphasizes the importance of laying down godly roots:

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord.
For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.

––Jeremiah 17:7-8, KNJV

Man of God, where have you laid down your roots? Jesus warns about four types of ground into which we can plant our spiritual seeds: hard ground (where seeds are snatched up); shallow ground (where seeds sprout but quickly die from lack of nourishment); thorny ground (which strangles with the world’s worries); and the rich soil of God’s Kingdom. Take some time to examine your roots—is some weeding needed (confession and accountability), are you rootbound (stagnating), or maybe even need to be replanted in richer soil (deeper fellowship)?

Father, thank You for the Body of Christ that operates like stems of the same root system, emanating from You. You are the vine, Lord, and apart from you, I wither and die. Keep me connected and rooted in You.

________________________

(“Pando: Documenting a Tree That Redefines What a Tree Can Be,” by Lance Oditt, National Forest Foundation Blog.)