And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. - Ephesians 3:17b-19Summer is the testing time for our garden. The heat in our town beats down and we can see which plants and trees are established. That is, they have developed a reliable connection to the water and nutrients that are available in the soil. Or not. That connection allows it to stand the test of the 20+ days over 100 degrees in July.
When a seed is first introduced into the ground, it has a certain amount of life within it. Enough life to sprout up towards the sun. Enough life to dig down into the soil. But that life is limited and if that first growth does not become rooted and established, it will fail. It must make a connection with the sustenance in the environment. If not, it will die. No long term prospects.
Jesus uses a similar idea in his parable of the farmer who scattered his seed. He explains that "The farmer sows the word." (Mark 4:14) God's word has life in it. It has the necessary elements to initiate life. It has the necessary DNA to form godliness within us. But it must be rooted and established in order to grow. Otherwise it has no long term prospects.
Paul expands on this: he prays that all the folks in the church, who are "rooted and established in love" get an idea of the full richness of soil into which God has planted this new life. God hasn't left us in the flinty, rock-filled, nutrient-deficient soil. No, he has planted this life of ours in the wide-open, unimaginably rich and fulfilling soil of his love.
If we are feeling nutrient-deprived and water-stressed, perhaps our roots are stretching for sustenance in the wrong directions.
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