Roots Before Branches

I tell you what....my Grandma (my Daddy's Mom) had a green thumb. That woman could grow anything. I remember being told a story of how she had gone to visit one of her five son's in Minnesota one Summer. Upon boarding her plane she instructed my Dad to place a package she had coming in the corner of her house and she would handle it when she got back. The package arrived just as she said and per her instructions my Daddy tossed the package in the corner of her house and it stayed there until she returned home several weeks later. Upon her arrival home she opened the package and to my Daddy's amazement it was an oak tree. It was a sad, pitiful, DEAD tree now! My Grandma was not worried in the slightest. She took that tree into her backyard, planted it and I have you know that to this very day that tree is still thriving in the backyard of that house!

I remember as a child my Grandma would come and stay for several weeks at the time. You always knew when she was there because you could smell the scent of fresh baked bread for miles down the road it seemed like! And, she resurrected my Mom's dead flowers. Oh, my Momma loves flowers but bless her heart she kills them. One time, she killed a cactus. Another time, she killed an air plant! Yes, an air plant! How do you even begin to kill an AIR PLANT?!?!? Well, I need not laugh because this "black" thumb was passed on to me. I love flowers but I kill them. I know nothing about them. When I was a kid I wanted to be a florist. How funny is that? I love to arrange flowers and decorate with flowers but to grow them......not my cup of tea I guess you could say. I don't know enough about the roots of the flowers, shrubs or trees to make them grow into the beauty they are meant to be. But, with gardening you must have good roots to have beautiful flowers, perfect shurbs and thriving trees.

Same is true with our lives. Without roots we are nothing. We might randomly sprout a twig here or there but we aren't full, complete, to our potential. God's word is our roots. We must hide God's word within our hearts to grow our roots so we can have full thick branches. In Psalm 119:11 it says "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." We must read and retain God's word. We must protect it in our hearts like a precious treasure so no one can ever take it. We must do this because one day we will be in a situation where a storm will rage, winds will roar, lightening will flash and without the deep roots of God's word hidden within our hearts our branches will crack, break and fall into sin. Trust God to be your gardner and grow deep strong roots in his word! You must have roots before you can have branches!