How sturdy are your roots?

When I was growing up, one of the chores that the boys had to do was cut the grass. It was hot work, and you wanted to do as little extra work as is possible. So I was a bit miffed when my sister decided to plant a sapling in the front yard - because it meant that I had to mow around it. Which I dutifully did about twice, and then I got tired of it. So I accidentally ran over it with the lawnmower. On three separate occasions. Of course, I was very sorry. Really, I was...sort of... All that was left was a cut up stump/twig. And Mary would complain and I'd be in trouble again...

But an unforeseen thing happened to that stump because of my horticultural attention. In the midst of a very hot summer, it grew an amazing set of roots. It had to, because I kept stripping it of the leaves that it needed for nutrition. Deep into the soil, it clung tenaciously to life, drawing from the deep places of the earth what it needed to continue to grow in the midst of such mistreatment. So, if you stop by the Kempf house these days, you will see this beautiful, large, perfectly shaped tree, awesome for climbing - still planted right where my sister had put it in an act of innocent hope and care. Still in the same spot where I had run over it in my vain attempts to stop it's growth.

"For a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom." It is probably a passage that we don't spend a lot of time with. I know I kind of skip over that point till I get to the good poetry. To do so misses some important stuff. Isaiah, who was writing during a time of tremendous upheaval in Israel, is able to pen such a rich and hopeful vision precisely because he had roots sunk deeply into the soil of prayer and prophesy. Only from that deep place, from that rich soil of God's creative faithfulness, could he see that the stump of Israel, surrounded by Sennecharib's army- cut down, lifeless, apparently like the promises of God himself - had a life of their own. Growing silently among the chosen people - biding its time, drawing strength from deep within, till the time came for it to flower. It is a vision of a just king and a just society - caring so rightly and wonderfully for the poor and afflicted that the resulting calm spills over to the animal world.

Fiery John, the baptizer, has his roots sunk deeply in the prophetic tradition of Israel. He knows whom he is - one to prepare the way. And nothing less than that would do. That's what the roots that nourished him told him. It seems kind of harsh, to call the people who were coming out to him with good intentions - a brood of vipers. But the soil that produced much good fruit in him - was that of word-put-into-action. It was not enough to show up to the synagogue on Saturday, to recite the prayers, to be a devout Jew in the midst of normal life. John knew life only as he was completely devoted to the preaching and preparing the way for the messiah. Deep roots in the soil of God.

Where are the roots in your life? What grows beneath the surface, unseen to most others - that feeds the hope, that nurtures life within you even when all that is visible seems like that cut off stump in the Kempf family front yard? Because there are times when we are like that stump of Jesse, cut off, barren, not much in the way of life there. A relationship we relied on changes course and we are no longer 'dating or friends or anything'. A test comes back in a class we need to pass for our degree and it is not looking good. The parent's relationship is not going stunningly well and we're sort of trapped in the middle, not knowing exactly how to support either of them. To those experiences and those like them, Isaiah has a word for us: A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from those deep roots, a bud shall blossom. Trust that there is growth happening even when it is not so visible.

This week, I bid you to reflect on the gospel question: How deep are the roots of your life? From what soil do you draw nourishment? Who are the people, what is the quiet, where is the prayer that nourishes the soil of your soul - so that you may be in the space that John encourages us to be- producing good fruit as evidence of God being present in your life.

That tree should never have survived how I treated it. But with God's grace and roots deep in the earth, the stump is now a beautiful tree. And if God can do that with a small sapling, imagine what he can do with the stuff of our lives...