Roots, Trees, and Jesus Christ

"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit" -Matthew 12:31.

Tree. I've been thinking of trees lately. Not like "save the earth" type tree thinking. But how am I like a tree. I've grown up on analogies. That's how I learned things, my dad would always explain things using analogies and I guess now that's how my mind works. So a tree. What do you think of when you hear tree? roots, dirt, trunk, branches, leaves, flowers, pine cones, and so on. There are a million different types of trees, just like their are millions upon millions of different types of people. Every tree has roots, just like every person has roots. The roots dig into the dirt, which is a foundation to grow upon. Roots can be anything, tradition someone grew up on, the Word of God and Jesus Christ, in this case it's the Word of God and Jesus Christ. and we plant the Word of God like a seed in our hearts so it grows and grows, it is our roots. Trunks are solid, and come in many different shapes and sizes, just like people. Now the trunk gets stronger from the roots, the roots gather the food source for the trunk. The Word of God is our root, our food source, and as we dig deeper into it and plant the seed we grow stronger, our trunk grows stronger. We are tougher, harder to break, and fall over when the wind blows hard. Now out of the trunk comes the branches. The branches spread like arms, they reach out and touch other trees around them, they can hold and support things. Our arms are our branches. They are strong, they are their to hold and support people. We reach out as God shows us to, to pray for, hold, and support our fellow "trees". and last but not least the flowers, or leaves. It's what draws people in. If a tree is radiant people are going to want to look at it. I'm not talking about beauty, because beauty if fleeting. I'm talking about what comes all the way from the roots and into those flowers and leaves. The food source. The Word of God, Jesus Christ. You see those flowers are so radiant because of their food source, if they had no food source they would shrivel up and die, they would be nothing. And that is exactly what we are looking at. We thrive on our food source, The Bible and Jesus Christ. If you have Jesus as your root, you will radiate everything about Him, you live the way He lived, you see the way He sees, and so on. And people begin to see that. As your roots grow deeper in the Lord, radiate His love and His life and people will notice.

A tree is recognized by its fruit, its flowers, its leaves, but a tree cannot have good fruit or leaves or flowers if the roots are poisoned by the food it eats. And the trunk cannot grow or be strong with poisoned roots. Or the whole tree will become poisoned and will fall.

Just like a tree we need good roots established in our hearts. This is Jesus, and the Bible. Everything we need on how to build a foundation in and on our Rock, Jesus Christ is found in the Bible. When we put our roots into the Bible and suck out every possible thing we can it becomes our food, our life source. When we have Jesus in our hearts, He becomes our life source, for without Him we have nothing but poison in our blood streams. Our roots are empty and our foundation is poisoned. We will not grow, we will stunt and fall just like a tree. Our fruit will become ugly because Jesus makes us beautiful.

I feel like I'm talking in circles, but what I guess I'm trying to say is without a foundation in Jesus Christ our lives are bound to become a hollowed out tree, dying from the inside out. We need to realize what we are putting our roots into. In this case what we are opening our hearts up to. Whether it be movies, music, people, books, facebook, or the internet. Because when we open our hearts up and these things begin to consume us, even a little, we are opening it up to even a little bit of poison. Yeah I know, sounds very stuffy right, I mean it's only a pg 13 movie there's no nudity just a little cussing, and sexual innuendos. You've got to be kidding me really. I know, and I'm still discerning on what is good and not good. In this day and age it's so hard to shut out movies and music because that is how people socialize. But even a little opening, is an opening for the enemy.

I don't listen to the radio in my car or anywhere else. I have one set list on my Ipod I am always listening to, I don't know what any of the new hip music is, and so I don't sing-a-long when it comes on, like everyone else. It makes me strange, but I listen to the lyrics, which many people don't. They don't realize what they are singing. I guess I'm becoming one of those stuffy people who believe everything can be evil... haha no I don't believe that. I find the good in everything, well if there is good to be found. I truly don't remember where I was going with this, but I hope it kind of helped something or another, if not I know it helped me to get my thoughts out.

I guess the thing we need to do is take a step back and look at the things that consume our lives, are they good for us, bad for us, and what can we do to become better rooted in Christ and His word. Maybe it's giving these things up for even ten minutes of prayer. Maybe it's actually speaking out about God. Maybe it's something only you know you can do or need. But God knows, He wants us to grow deeper, to become more rooted in His truth, because without it, we will continue to believe the lies of this world. Encouragement: Open your Bible, Dig Deeper into the Word, Pour over it, Mediate on it. And Let God speak to you about it. It's one of the best food for our hungry hearts.

"My son pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to a man's whole body. Above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life" - Proverbs 4:20-23.


In Christ's overwhelming love,



His and yours,



Cami