2020 and Beyond! Rooted AND Grounded!

There is a tree in my front lawn that has merely transformed it's size right before my eyes. When we moved into our home over a decade ago, the little lanky tree stood on the center of the front yard, barely 5 feet. I remembered the day when we moved in that I wondered what the tree would grow to look like. As the years passed by, the little tree grew in small increments but surely as we speak, it has almost met the height of the second floor.

What has amazed me is what has been happening underground in the process. All awhile the tree was growing just about 6 feet. I remembered having to call a plumber to the house only to find the roots of the lanky tree had grown and reached deep into the ground in front and below my house. I could not believe a tree of that size could have roots developing that deep into the ground. I then had the revelation that a lot was going on underneath the surface. It was in the hidden place that a foundation was being made in preparation for the tree to be able to be balanced, strong and beautiful to withstand the wind as well as the future strong branches it would bear. Above the surface, the sun, the soil and the rain were all there to ensure the tree's growth. I now see what it has become.

I thought about the tree situation long and hard. I thought about how we can sometimes forget that what we have learned through-out our Christian walk and throughout our lives has been setting the solid foundation on which we are now standing. In Colossians 2:7, Paul encourages the church to be rooted in Him (the Greek word rooted means fixed and established) and Peter encourages us also to be grounded in truth. The word grounded in Greek means "to make stable". I remember hearing Zechariah 4:10: "Do not despise small beginnings." Truly, it is in these times in which we appear to be small in certain things that we are setting a fixed foundation for greater things to come. Just as the sun, rain, and soil is there to prepare the tree's roots to eventually leverage the height of a growing tree, we too, can be encouraged to know that although we may not always see much growth immediately in a particular area of our lives, we can be confident that our investment in the things if God is laying a sure foundation for which we stand. 2020 is here! Let's stay rooted, grounded and ready to grow AND branch-out in profound and insurmountable ways today and beyond!