"Roots"

The seed is God's message... - Luke 8:11b, CEV

It was one day last month - maybe a little after the daffodils started to blossom.  Across the hall from my office, the Rainbow students had been making very colorful and creative paper flowers and had put them on two of the tables in Colcord Hall, where I enjoyed looking at them as I passed by on my way to the kitchen to make coffee.

I guess Mrs. L and Miss Karen had, along with the warmer weather, prompted in the kids a real "Springy" mood: the Rainbow boys and girls were clearly thinking of flowers and taking care of gardens and so on.  That afternoon, when the moms and dads came to pick up their daughters and sons, I heard the following exchange right outside my door: child - "Mommy, when we get home, can we water the flowers?"; mother - "What flowers, honey?"; child - "You know, Mommy, the flowers in the kitchen."; mother - "They're gone, honey, they died.  They didn't have any roots on them, so they died real quick."

Those words started me thinking.  In this Easter season of the church year, as we approach our celebration and remembrance of the birth of Christ's Church at Pentecost, it's a good time for us to examine our roots, that is our faith roots or our spiritual roots.  As we are reminded in the Parable of the Sower, even God's word can wither and die in us unless it is watered and nourished and develops good, full, deep roots.

Our faith roots come from worship, prayer, reading and studying the scriptures, from God ministering to us through the Spirit, and in a good measure from our own ministry to and with each other.  As beautiful bright flowers die too quickly when cut off from their roots, our lives as God's people will wither if not nourished and watered with the living water God offers to us in vital, active Christian faith.

I am suggesting to each and all that we need to live our faith - we need to actively practice our faith - enabling the seed of God's word to come to full bloom in each of us and in our church!  May it be so.