Rooted

For some reason, I have always loved trees.  They impress on me a sense that they are covering, protecting and providing. . . .somehow living as a metaphor that is meant to communicate to me a message that helps me to live more deeply and more alive. 

I remember a trip to Cambodia where I saw trees growing over ancient temple walls where the roots spilled out into open spaces looking for ground to set themselves into.  It was a stunning sight to see:  all those massive tendrils snaking their way through open air, taking what looked like leaps of faith and growing out into wide open space with the hope that they would find solid ground.

There seems to be an innate drive in things in the created order to find solid ground.  To find that place of substance where growth emerges; to find home.

Those treees I saw in Cambodia were huge, but they grew so large because of two things:  They needed massive roots for support, and, those roots had to take risks (grow through open air) to find the place where they would thrive.  I think the same is true for us.

Have you ever felt that you simply longed for more?  More peace?  More joy?  More freedom?  More love?  That's not by chance. . .it's the DNA of life and it moves you to search just like those roots.

But in order for roots to find their true destiny, they need to be rooted.  They need to find their home in order to thrive. And our search to be rooted leads us to take leaps of faith through the open air to this:

We find our home in the love that Jesus has for us.

This is our everything!  He is our Creator who designed us to thrive in Him.  He is the One who built humanity with an innate drive to find that place where we can be rooted, solid, grounded, surrounded and supported.  We live in a broken world where our search for that rooted place often leads us to life-destroying destinations, but Jesus is faithfully calling us to take the risks necessary to overcome our fears and trust that we will truly find life in Him.

Just listen to this from Ephesians 3:17-19 "And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, 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."

All of life's longings to be rooted, to find a home, to be solid, are found in this one thing:  the love of Jesus for you.  It requires unbelievable power to grasp the vastness of this love.  His love for you is so encompassing and deep; so expansive and eternal; so rich and fulfilling that it goes beyond our ability to comprehend.  And that's why it is so risky to accept.  Jesus' love for you blows apart the borders you put on what love should or even could look like.  It goes way beyond.  

But it's where you were meant to live.

So just like those Cambodian tree roots that had to grow through that alien territory of open air before they found the soil they could root themselves into that led to immense life, you too are being invited to extend yourself beyond your own borders and limitations of what a solid life looks like.  You are being invited to accept a love that is meant to give you life beyond what you imagine.  A rootedness in this love will change everything and lead to a massive life.

It's all there for you. . .take a leap and see.

B