Perspectives

Roots

By Seth Carter
Posted 6/9/22

It is gardening season again! Recently I, perhaps like some of you, have been looking at bags and bags of material that say things like “soil pep” or “root stimulator” or …

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Perspectives

Roots

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It is gardening season again! Recently I, perhaps like some of you, have been looking at bags and bags of material that say things like “soil pep” or “root stimulator” or “organic compost mulch from earthworm droppings.” Some of the packages have a series of numbers on them that I have to decode each year. The numbers help me know which elements this product will provide for my garden — elements like nitrogen.

The reason I dig into this science each year is because I want the plants in my garden to have healthy roots. Roots are the unsung heroes of the garden. Except for carrots and radishes, when I’m literally eating the root, in many cases, as I am watching cucumbers and tomatoes and peppers grow, I don’t think too much about the root system working its way through the soil, systematically claiming nutrients and drawing life-giving water into the veins of the plant. Without a healthy root system my garden will fail.

To give the plants the best chance of a good yield, I supply what I can through cultivating a rich environment. If the soil is too packed, not deep enough or littered with too many other seeds, the plants will struggle.

Roots produce a helpful word picture for me to think about my existence. The root is not the source or origin of life, but it works into the source — the soil — and draws up sustenance for life. What I choose to root into determines the health of my life.

The apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossian Christians draws on the picture of roots and gives us fertile sod to turn over some ideas about this.

He writes:

“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow 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.” -Colossians 2:6-7

What are your roots growing into? Does it even matter? The next verse shows the implications of rooting into the wrong material. 

“Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that comes from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.” -Colossians 2:8-9

If a root system grows into something with little nutrients, the plant is weak and will not produce much fruit.

Jesus showed this same thing when teaching this parable about a man sowing seed in his field:

“Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun and since they didn’t have deep roots they died. Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.” -Matthew 13:3-9

What about you? Have you thought about what your life is grounded in? What your roots are drawing from will determine how you handle life when the pressure is on and the heat is turned up. Will you stand firm or will you wilt? Are there many things competing for your attention, like weeds that steal the nutrients from garden plants? Or is the soil of your heart packed down and hardened by resentment or a strategy of self-protection, leaving you vulnerable to being devoured by the enemy? 

Please turn to Jesus! Ask him to be your source of life and choose to cultivate the soil of your heart to draw from him. This doesn’t mean you will never have difficulty or that life will be easy. It means that when life feels strained, you will have access to everything you need to thrive and bear fruit in the midst of the difficulty.

In Colossians 3, Paul describes what happens to someone who is rooted in Jesus. He says, “your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.”

This year, may your gardening efforts prove fruitful. And I pray that this year, the garden of your soul will begin to draw on Jesus and that your life will yield healthy fruit as well.

(Seth Carter is the director of Campus Ventures in Powell.)

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