it's no secret: i love trees. no, i'm not a crazy tree-hugger (although sometimes i wish i could be more of one), but i just think trees are such a perfect picture of spiritual life.
so needless to say, when jeremy started his sermon last night by reading passages like luke 6.43-45 and john 15.5, i knew it was going to be a good one. just start saying words like "roots," "branches," "trees," and "fruit," and my heart starts freaking out.
i could write a million blog posts on trees and spiritual life. it's an analogy used all over scripture, and i love it every single time.
last night, jeremy talked about how what we desire is essentially the core of who we are... or following the analogy, we are rooted in what we desire.
luke quotes jesus like this: "For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit... The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."
and john like this: "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."
what am i rooted in? what is the treasure of my heart? what am i abiding in? what kind of fruit am i producing?
when the husband and i were honeymooning in hawaii, we went to a botanical garden one morning. the tree above was one of my favorites -- i mean, just look at that beauty!! what you can't tell from the above picture is how unbelievably massive it is... which is why we took this picture:
look at those roots, y'all. they're taller than we are!!! i was absolutely in awe. that tree isn't going anywhere any time soon.
i want the roots of my heart to be big and strong like that so that my faith might be unwavering. i want to be "rooted and grounded in love" (ephesians 3.17)... his steadfast, unconditional, boundless love... his higher and wider and deeper and longer than i could imagine love. i want the treasure of my heart, my ultimate desire, to be christ alone. i want to abide in him, dwell in him, make my home in him.
so why is it that as much as i want these things, they are SO easy to forget? all too quickly i find myself desiring things of this world more than i desire christ, but as ann voskamp says in a recent must-read post, "When you lose your First Love, you don't just lose your way -- you lose your mind." i wish i didn't know that to be true from experience.
but thanks be to god that when i realize i've lost my first love, my way, and for sure my mind, when i realize that apart from him i am absolutely nothing, when i realize my life is completely disoriented when not rooted in him, he graciously and mercifully wants me back. he takes me in and gives me "a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit," and he calls me an "oak of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he may be glorified" (isaiah 61.3).
so needless to say, when jeremy started his sermon last night by reading passages like luke 6.43-45 and john 15.5, i knew it was going to be a good one. just start saying words like "roots," "branches," "trees," and "fruit," and my heart starts freaking out.
i could write a million blog posts on trees and spiritual life. it's an analogy used all over scripture, and i love it every single time.
last night, jeremy talked about how what we desire is essentially the core of who we are... or following the analogy, we are rooted in what we desire.
luke quotes jesus like this: "For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit... The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."
and john like this: "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."
what am i rooted in? what is the treasure of my heart? what am i abiding in? what kind of fruit am i producing?
when the husband and i were honeymooning in hawaii, we went to a botanical garden one morning. the tree above was one of my favorites -- i mean, just look at that beauty!! what you can't tell from the above picture is how unbelievably massive it is... which is why we took this picture:
look at those roots, y'all. they're taller than we are!!! i was absolutely in awe. that tree isn't going anywhere any time soon.
i want the roots of my heart to be big and strong like that so that my faith might be unwavering. i want to be "rooted and grounded in love" (ephesians 3.17)... his steadfast, unconditional, boundless love... his higher and wider and deeper and longer than i could imagine love. i want the treasure of my heart, my ultimate desire, to be christ alone. i want to abide in him, dwell in him, make my home in him.
so why is it that as much as i want these things, they are SO easy to forget? all too quickly i find myself desiring things of this world more than i desire christ, but as ann voskamp says in a recent must-read post, "When you lose your First Love, you don't just lose your way -- you lose your mind." i wish i didn't know that to be true from experience.
but thanks be to god that when i realize i've lost my first love, my way, and for sure my mind, when i realize that apart from him i am absolutely nothing, when i realize my life is completely disoriented when not rooted in him, he graciously and mercifully wants me back. he takes me in and gives me "a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit," and he calls me an "oak of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he may be glorified" (isaiah 61.3).
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