Saturday, May 10, 2008

Roots


"May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love, and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God's children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is, and to experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at last you will be filled up with God himself." Ephesians 3:17-19 TLB

"Good people will prosper like palm trees,
Grow tall like Lebanon cedars;
transplanted to God's courtyard,
They'll grow tall in the presence of God,
lithe and green, virile still in old age."
Psalm 92:12-14 the Message

May 11, 2008
Sunday morning, Mother's Day

...withering
There is no service at our church today, canceled for a family day. Often we are disappointed by the commitment to worship of our chosen church family here in Estonia. Other churches do have services more regularly, but this one needs us and the stability we offer. But on mornings like this, I resonate with Brian's statement that "we are withering on the vine here." Often we long for fellowship with like-minded Christians. This is one of the reasons that spurs us to move again, in spite of the great need here.

...transplanting
Pulling up roots again. As an MK, we pulled up and moved several times. I'm sure my mom understands the upheaval of transplanting to a new place, culture, and language, again. As a young mom, my roots grew quickly and easily in the fertile soil of our church family in Ogema, Wisconsin. A transplant two short years later to Chicago wasn't so easy. I was exuberant when God reassigned us to the very sparsely populated and beautiful country of Estonia. And my roots have grown again, slowly, ever so slowly, as I have painstakingly learned a hard language so that I can make friends. In the process we purchased a little spot to call our own and I began planting a garden. My perennials are beginning to look like they belong, sort of like me. And yet, so many things are foreign here - I have never felt completely at home. Still, I stop to visit for an afternoon with a friend, and I come home with a headache. It's hard work to listen in my adopted language. So I have longed many times as we contemplate this next assignment that God would give me a place where I can just stay until the end of my life. No more transplanting, please!

...the soil of God's marvelous love
Tears rolled down my cheeks as I read this translation of Ephesians 3 a few weeks ago. It occurred to me afresh that the roots of my soul will never be satisfied in a place, no matter how conducive to growth it may be. Only when I put my roots down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love will I be filled with God himself. Only when I allow myself to be transplanted into God's presence will I grow tall, lithe, green.


...flourishing
So this mother's day, I thank God for a mother who satisfies the roots of her soul in God's presence daily. And I pray that my children will understand the depth and width of God's marvelous love for them. I pray that as we transplant our family to a new place, our roots will remain steadfastly planted in God's presence, that my children will grow tall like Lebanon cedars.

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