Ephesians 3:17-19 (New International Version, ©2010)
17 And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 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, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
There is a saying, something about if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? The answer to this question means very little to my sons, Silas (age 4) and Cohen (age Terrible 2). They love natural disasters. We live in the woods and natural disasters occur more frequently than you would imagine. Of course, to them, things we would consider a minor inconvenience would be a disaster to them, so you have to take this all in context. So the other night, a fierce wind swept up our hilltop home and a dead tree fell. Across the driveway. This was huge. As soon as breakfast ended, we put on our muck boots (mud is also a nearly never-ending natural disaster in our neck of the woods), our rain jackets, and, of course, Silas grabbed his toy chain saw. We headed to the scene of the crime and stood in awe of the 30 foot dead tree that had fallen in the night. Now if you have children or have ever been around one in your life, you know that they love to ask questions. It's just what they do. My kids' primary speech pattern is in the form of a question. We're training them to win big on Jeopardy someday- just remember your dear old Mother who not only put up with your questions, but also did her best to answer them well and in a timely manner, I tell them.
Anyway, so the tree was lying there across the road and the first question was, obviously, "Mom, why did it fall?" As a Mother, you develop some amazing scientist and detective-like qualities over time, so we set off on our investigation. The answer, in this case, was simple. The roots of the tree were completely rotten. The tree didn't stand a chance (pun...intended?) against the ferocious wind the previous night. My little boys crowded around the base of the fallen tree with great intensity and curiosity as I explained to them that the roots of the tree are where the true strength lies and without strong roots, the tree could no longer stand. They tend to be fairly short on attention span, so they scampered off and proceeded to attempt to chop the beast of a tree up with a toy chainsaw (with dead batteries I might add). I sat and looked at the tree and my philosophical side began to well up. My mind immediately went to the Ephesians passage about being rooted and established (grounded in other translations) in love. I started thinking about how as people of God, if we don't have the love of God as our base, we're destined for a fall.
As I stared at the fragile, broken roots I thought about my own life and what condition my own roots are in at the moment. Am I loving God as fervently and with my entire life as He deserves? Am I loving my family and working hard to create a loving environment in our home? And what about people I don't know or, if I'm being honest, don't care to know? Louie Giglio is one of my favorite teachers and he once shared in one of his messages the concept of love and how if you don't love people, you don't truly love God. When you have a heart for people, that's when the love of God is living in your own life. So many times I sing these songs and lead others in singing songs about love as a way of life and loving God with all that we are. Do we really mean it? I know I don't at times. But I'm thankful that God brought a natural disaster into my woods and the curious nature of two little boys to make me think about my foundation and my roots.
I pray that all of you consider your own foundation and ask yourself the question, how deep does your love go? How deep are your roots? The great and nearly overwhelming news is that if you look deep inside and answer these questions negatively and can admit that your roots are rotten, unproductive, and destined to wither, that there is a way to turn it around. I'm praying that God will give me a heart like His- a heart that loves people who are vastly different from me-and even people who are downright nasty. It's a life-changing and actually, a world-changing concept. So take some time to consider your roots so that we may "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."
There is a saying, something about if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? The answer to this question means very little to my sons, Silas (age 4) and Cohen (age Terrible 2). They love natural disasters. We live in the woods and natural disasters occur more frequently than you would imagine. Of course, to them, things we would consider a minor inconvenience would be a disaster to them, so you have to take this all in context. So the other night, a fierce wind swept up our hilltop home and a dead tree fell. Across the driveway. This was huge. As soon as breakfast ended, we put on our muck boots (mud is also a nearly never-ending natural disaster in our neck of the woods), our rain jackets, and, of course, Silas grabbed his toy chain saw. We headed to the scene of the crime and stood in awe of the 30 foot dead tree that had fallen in the night. Now if you have children or have ever been around one in your life, you know that they love to ask questions. It's just what they do. My kids' primary speech pattern is in the form of a question. We're training them to win big on Jeopardy someday- just remember your dear old Mother who not only put up with your questions, but also did her best to answer them well and in a timely manner, I tell them.
Anyway, so the tree was lying there across the road and the first question was, obviously, "Mom, why did it fall?" As a Mother, you develop some amazing scientist and detective-like qualities over time, so we set off on our investigation. The answer, in this case, was simple. The roots of the tree were completely rotten. The tree didn't stand a chance (pun...intended?) against the ferocious wind the previous night. My little boys crowded around the base of the fallen tree with great intensity and curiosity as I explained to them that the roots of the tree are where the true strength lies and without strong roots, the tree could no longer stand. They tend to be fairly short on attention span, so they scampered off and proceeded to attempt to chop the beast of a tree up with a toy chainsaw (with dead batteries I might add). I sat and looked at the tree and my philosophical side began to well up. My mind immediately went to the Ephesians passage about being rooted and established (grounded in other translations) in love. I started thinking about how as people of God, if we don't have the love of God as our base, we're destined for a fall.
As I stared at the fragile, broken roots I thought about my own life and what condition my own roots are in at the moment. Am I loving God as fervently and with my entire life as He deserves? Am I loving my family and working hard to create a loving environment in our home? And what about people I don't know or, if I'm being honest, don't care to know? Louie Giglio is one of my favorite teachers and he once shared in one of his messages the concept of love and how if you don't love people, you don't truly love God. When you have a heart for people, that's when the love of God is living in your own life. So many times I sing these songs and lead others in singing songs about love as a way of life and loving God with all that we are. Do we really mean it? I know I don't at times. But I'm thankful that God brought a natural disaster into my woods and the curious nature of two little boys to make me think about my foundation and my roots.
I pray that all of you consider your own foundation and ask yourself the question, how deep does your love go? How deep are your roots? The great and nearly overwhelming news is that if you look deep inside and answer these questions negatively and can admit that your roots are rotten, unproductive, and destined to wither, that there is a way to turn it around. I'm praying that God will give me a heart like His- a heart that loves people who are vastly different from me-and even people who are downright nasty. It's a life-changing and actually, a world-changing concept. So take some time to consider your roots so that we may "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."
Wonderful!'m glad you have a blog! Thank you for sharing and I can't wait to hear more!
ReplyDeleteWell said! You've made me think about my own life, when I know there are times it's difficult to love people.
ReplyDelete