After my daughter and her family moved out to the farm with us she shared her dream of a beautiful fruit filled orchard. She studied specific fruit trees to see which were ideal for the soil on the farm. Once she carefully chose each tree and lovingly planted them her dream began.
It would have been disappointing for her if she had ran after her dream without putting time into knowing how to make it happen. Winging it just wouldn’t be enough for this task. There were a lot of things to consider including knowledge, patience and time.
She began with the foundation. She had to deal with the soil which is very rocky and would be very dry in the hot summer sun. For the first few years we kept small buckets with a few tiny holes in the bottom at the base of the trees. When the buckets were filled with water they would slowly trickle at the base of each tree. This allowed the water to soak into the ground watering the roots and not just running off away from the roots. We had hoped that would help the tree while it took its time to slowly grow deep, stable roots. One day the trees will have a mature root system that will take care of every tiny detail of the tree from the roots all the way to the end of each leaf. A solid foundation is what she needed to have trees full of ripe, sweet fruit.
The person who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence indeed is the LORD, is blessed. He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit. Jeremiah 17:7-8
Like these fruit trees our foundation is just as important for us to be firmly planted, deeply rooted and standing strong. This verse in Jeremiah tells us just that. We must trust and have confidence in the Lord. So we will be blessed, without fear and be fruitful.
He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Psalm1:3
I haven’t always been like this tree in Psalm 1:3. I once lived like a tree with girdling roots. Have you ever seen a tree with girdling roots? When the roots of a tree wrap around the base of the tree it suffocates or chokes out the tree. It keeps water, food and nutrients from traveling up into the tree. If not treated it can slowly choke and kill itself.
Instead of being planted in Gods will allowing Him to be first in my life I allowed others to come first. My roots that were so carefully designed and placed in healthy soil by my Maker began to be poisoned by words of others that I allowed to be louder than His voice. The roots began to circle around getting tighter and tighter. Making not only breathing much harder but to think for myself and make my own decisions was becoming almost impossible. The person God created was withering away like a dying tree with no leaves or sweet fruit.
Then in a small, quiet moment Jesus whispered
Matthew 11:28 Come to me you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.
He did for me what He promises us all, to remove the things or people in our lives that are similar to these girdling roots.
I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. John 15:1-5
To save a girdling tree from its own roots you have to cut these roots away. God will prune away anything in your life that isn’t healthy and doesn’t produce fruit.
Trees like us are meant to be planted in good, healthy soil which allows the roots to spread out. The roots store and bring food, water and nutrients up from the ground into the leaves and ends of each branch but the roots grow out to help anchor the tree making it grow and stand tall and stable. For us this means being rooted in Jesus word allowing Him to be the strong foundation that makes us stand tall and stable.
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