tree planting
We have heard the call and have vowed to “set the Lord always before us” so that now “just as [we] have received Christ Jesus as Lord, [we] continue to live in him, being rooted and built up in him and established in faith, just as [we] were taught” (Psalm 16:8a; Colossians 2:6-7a).
In order to do this, we pray to continually understand this life is not rooted in one another or any other earthly entity, but in the Lord, the fountain of living water. We pray this so that we “will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit” (Jeremiah 17:8). We know our world, our lives, our marriage, will experience seasons of fear, worry, heat and drought, but as we remain in our source of living water, our leaves will not wither and our branches will not stay barren.
By planting this tree, we also humbly admit our lives’ brevity. Trees can last for years; long & easily outliving any of our breaths. And though we know that our time on this earth is short and minute comparatively, we pray that with this brief life, we add in number to those who are saved by grace. Analogous now as we add this single sapling to the forests of those that are aged, strong and established; whose branches are stable and roots run deep. By growing near to them, we hope to also pursue Christ as our lone, true source of living water, causing our roots to deepen and strengthen. We hope that we may seek to be planted in His righteousness and perfection alone, soaking in His Word and resting in His presence. We hope that we might grow in His likeness, by grace & through faith, until one day we look up and notice how our branches too, by no power of our own, are bearing fruit that displays the power and glory of our God and our Savior (reflection of She Reads Truth: Planted devotion; p.837).