Just one month ago – in the midst of a hot July – the brown, dry grass crunched beneath my feet as I walked through the yard. Grass weaves a mat of shallow roots just below the surface of the earth and it depends on frequent moisture to keep it alive. There was no moisture in July this year. Just when I decided to count my blessings that at least we wouldn’t need to mow, the rains of August began to come. and come. and come. It has rained so much this month that our once dried up lawn is lush and constantly growing! Now, instead of crunching beneath my feet, I can’t walk across the yard without my shoes becoming soaking wet and we cannot keep up with the mowing. Those shallow roots are drinking in their fill and new grass has sprung up!
“They will spring up like grass in a meadow,like poplar trees by flowing streams.”
Isaiah 44:4
It is wonderful to see the new green grass, but I don’t want to be like that grass – here today when the blessings flow and withered tomorrow when the sun is scorching – instead I would rather be like my blackberry plants. When we planted the blackberries, we inquired about their care from a neighboring berry farm.
“Do you water them often?” I asked.
“I never water them,” she explained. “I want their roots to go deep to access the natural water supply. If I watered them, the roots would stay shallow depending on me.”
We stay shallow when we depend on earthly things.
We need to go deep – and depend on God.
“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They 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 17:7-8
What does it look like to have confidence in the Lord?
Send out your roots by the water – transplant yourself
All of the language in this passage is active – not passive. Jeremiah says that a person with confidence in the Lord SENDS out their roots. The word for PLANTED in verse 7 also means “transplanted.” If we are not planted by the water currently, then we must dig up our roots and move them.
Dig into the Word, drink in the Spirit, be intentional about staying in the presence of God.
“Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.”Psalm 1:1-3