I have shared numerous times on this blog how much I love gardening. What I haven't so clearly written are the many lessons God's Spirit has taught me through nature and creation. One of the most profound, I pray I will never forget, was almost too dear to put words to it. It has something to do with a root-bound, climbing vine and the entanglements of this life.
But yesterday, when I read Ephesians 3:14-21, what struck me most was this phrase, "rooted and grounded" (verse 17). As a child of the King, I should want to be "rooted and ground in love". And I do...don't you?
Sometimes in Paul's writings I have to go through them piece by piece backwards to discern what he's trying to say. He was given to being wordy (a trait I know all too well!), with long phrases and even longer sentences. Had he had the same affinity for my favorite form of punctuation...we would be kindred spirits indeed!
So yesterday, when I read the phrase, "rooted and grounded in love", and it resonated with me...perhaps because I know this is the cry of every human...to be loved fully...I wanted to glean from the passage the "secret" for sinking so deeply into love that I grow strong, steadfast and able to withstand life's storms...all by the power of love.
Remember I said, sometimes I have to go backwards to understand Paul. Here's how it works. I'll print the original passage and then how I pull it out piece by piece in reverse so as to make sense of it.
Original
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,
16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19, NASB)
Actually, I had to break it into two segments. First verses 14-17a: Christ can dwell in my heart through faith by the powerful strength of His Spirit in my inner person. I receive the Spirit according to the abundance of the true character of God as He has granted it to me...just as every person in heaven and on earth gets their name from Him. I humbly bow to Him in recognition of His great power and movement throughout all of creation.
Next segment which is 17b-19: I can be filled up to completely full with God...without any room for anything else. This happens because I can know the love of Jesus which you cannot learn from a textbook. How do I learn the full expanse of this love, just as the holy ones did who came before me? By being rooted and grounded...sinking down so deep that I hit bedrock...in His love.
To link it back to the first segment, and if I can draw a correlation with nature...when the Love of Jesus is what I sink down into...when the very roots of my life are drawing up the lifeblood of His Love...when His Love courses through my veins utilizing the sustenance I need to run this race of endurance...when it passes through my soul and pushes out the toxic waste that life has allowed to seep into the fabric of my being...by the indwelt strength and power of the Spirit of God...my life becomes a transference...a release of pure...life giving oxygen, that quite frankly, our human race needs desperately.
Notice one thing: From beginning to end, I had nothing to do with it, save one thing...
All I had to do was sink down into His Love.
Amen!
But yesterday, when I read Ephesians 3:14-21, what struck me most was this phrase, "rooted and grounded" (verse 17). As a child of the King, I should want to be "rooted and ground in love". And I do...don't you?
Sometimes in Paul's writings I have to go through them piece by piece backwards to discern what he's trying to say. He was given to being wordy (a trait I know all too well!), with long phrases and even longer sentences. Had he had the same affinity for my favorite form of punctuation...we would be kindred spirits indeed!
So yesterday, when I read the phrase, "rooted and grounded in love", and it resonated with me...perhaps because I know this is the cry of every human...to be loved fully...I wanted to glean from the passage the "secret" for sinking so deeply into love that I grow strong, steadfast and able to withstand life's storms...all by the power of love.
Remember I said, sometimes I have to go backwards to understand Paul. Here's how it works. I'll print the original passage and then how I pull it out piece by piece in reverse so as to make sense of it.
Original
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,
16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19, NASB)
Actually, I had to break it into two segments. First verses 14-17a: Christ can dwell in my heart through faith by the powerful strength of His Spirit in my inner person. I receive the Spirit according to the abundance of the true character of God as He has granted it to me...just as every person in heaven and on earth gets their name from Him. I humbly bow to Him in recognition of His great power and movement throughout all of creation.
Next segment which is 17b-19: I can be filled up to completely full with God...without any room for anything else. This happens because I can know the love of Jesus which you cannot learn from a textbook. How do I learn the full expanse of this love, just as the holy ones did who came before me? By being rooted and grounded...sinking down so deep that I hit bedrock...in His love.
To link it back to the first segment, and if I can draw a correlation with nature...when the Love of Jesus is what I sink down into...when the very roots of my life are drawing up the lifeblood of His Love...when His Love courses through my veins utilizing the sustenance I need to run this race of endurance...when it passes through my soul and pushes out the toxic waste that life has allowed to seep into the fabric of my being...by the indwelt strength and power of the Spirit of God...my life becomes a transference...a release of pure...life giving oxygen, that quite frankly, our human race needs desperately.
Notice one thing: From beginning to end, I had nothing to do with it, save one thing...
All I had to do was sink down into His Love.
Amen!
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