Roots 2

Roots can tell us a lot about plants; they are living legends of some of the history of the plants they support. Just this past week I reluctantly cut down a tall cedar that was part of a line of cedars in our backyard. I don’t know the full story of that tree but looking at the way it was tilted and digging a little bit around the roots gave me some idea of what happened.

My guess is that the previous owners of our house were doing some excavation work in the back and in the process cut the roots off half of the tree and then either the tree leaned to one side or they pushed it on a slant. What the previous owners intended to do with the damaged tree I don’t know but what I do know is that the 20-foot tree was leaning at a 60-degree angle when we bought the property, still alive but out of line with the rest of the barrier of trees. I left it that way for the first two years and decided last week that the only way to fix the problem was to cut it down, dig it out and fill the gap with two new young upright cedars.

As I thought about that tree I realized that many people are like that tree. Their roots have been damaged at some point in the past and the result was that the trajectory of their futures changed; instead of growing strait they leaned to one side or the other and in some way their lives are out of line with what is the intended purpose. They are still living but wounded and scarred by the callous actions of others.

I guess the truth is that all of us lean at least a little bit because of damaged roots. Family of origin issues or incidents from our past damage us and cause all of us to lean to the side at least to some degree. Thankfully none of us leans so badly as to require being cut down and completely uprooted. There is always a remedy for our wounds and though we may walk with limps we can fully recover to fulfil our intended purpose.

God’s grace is amazing in that it supplies what we need but do not have within ourselves; it fills the gaps in our lives so we can ultimately fulfil God’s intended purpose of our lives. The genealogy of Jesus includes the names of four women, each in some way scarred by her past and yet each redeemed by God’s grace to fulfil her purpose.

Tamar the widow of Judah’s son lived in shame until she devised a plot to deceive her father-in-law and become pregnant by him. She bore a son from whose line came the Messiah.

Rahab, a prostitute, was used by God in the conquest of Jericho and became mother to another in the line of Christ.

Ruth, a gentile and a widow, married Boaz and was the great-great grandmother of David.

Mary a teenaged virgin became pregnant before marriage and bore the public shame to become the mother of Jesus.

The roots of our lives tell a lot about what we have experienced but the fruit and the productivity of our lives do not have to be spoiled by the damage to our roots. God’s grace allows us to be rooted in Christ, and as the apostle Paul said, when that happens it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us, and in Christ we will do much more than we could ever hope or imagine.