“ROOTED but not BOUND”

Today I am looking at the calendar, and I’m astonished that it is already the middle of February! January came and went so quickly and yet, ever so slowly. Well, that isn’t possible, is it? I have to state the question, was it one or the other? Normally a month, esp the first month of the new year will be filled with new plans and the regular daily chores of day to day life.

This year started out like all others, a clear slate, ready to be planned and listed out and checked off.. New possibilities with hopes to accomplish so much as each new day comes and goes. We all do it to ourselves, it is part of our genetic make up. We must work toward goals, if we want to achieve them! I have to admit the winter months give me additional challenges to fight against the desire to hibernate and lose my motivation every day. You see, I’m a warm weather girl, the cold temps zap my energy, so I have to boost my system with good healthy foods and Vitamins. Currently, I find myself in what I hope is my “mid-life”. I’m coming to terms with the fact that staying busy is one major key to living a long and prosperous life. A prosperous life for me means, I hope to be up and moving when I’m in my late 70s.

This first month, however, brought a tough challenge, and I’m glad to have it over and done with for now! On January 6, I fell ill with symptoms from the covid virus. I fought it with every tool I had been able to acquire based on my own research. I took several over the counter and home remedies to treat every symptom. Of course my best defense was my faith in God to sustain me and heal me, one day at a time. With every passing day, there were times I had to make myself get up and go take care of the daily chores at my farm job; the one that pays my bills. With God’s help, I was able to push myself forward everyday. After work I would rest, honestly, I would collapse. I also, consumed food, good food for my recovery. I say good food to mean food that was life sustaining, because I could not taste or smell and had no clue whether it was good or not! It is now nearly a month later, and for the most part, I am well. My energy is still not at the level I would like for it to be, but I know it will improve everyday. I can not imagine where I would be, if I had not gotten up and worked every day.

Yesterday, I was able to accomplish one of my goals, I planted some bulbs. Better yet, I got some dirt therapy! I did not have the gusto excitement that I usually get at the thought of working in the dirt, but it did renew my spirit, and gave me some internal spiritual growth. It was GOLD! There is nothing so richly gained, as what is gleaned from creation, as are the thoughts and lessons learned, while working on your knees and tilling the earth with your hands! As I used the spade shovel to dig the holes, and then got down on my hands and knees to feel the earth in my hands, I encountered many roots that were not relenting their grasp of the soil. I worked and worked, eventually, I got enough of them pulled or moved to place each and every bulb into the ground and then returned the displaced soil over the bulb. Wondering with each placement, if it would survive the great task of springing forward as the next few months pass, and the cold weather turns to a more favorable environment for them to expose their tender leaves and blooms. As my thoughts wondered, even more so, to a place of personal growth, I thought of how our lives are much the same as a bulb has to experience in order to spring forth and expose all the beauty that God has destined us to share.

Life is a challenge from the moment we are conceived, that I am certain, as I have lived a little over a half century, and experienced both the challenges and the blessings of having been created. I wondered how God continues to move all obstacles out of our way, how he sometimes removes us from one area to another, and how he tends to us. I wondered, does he wonder, how we will overcome the struggles or will we give away our full potential to expose our tenderness, so that the bountifulness of His vision for us can spring forth?

When I finished the planting, I was both tired and satisfied. Whatever happens, whatever might spring forth, I know I did the best that I could to make sure something might happen. If I had not done anything, nothing would be possible. Now, I wait to experience the full hope for a beautiful possibility.

God is waiting for all of us, his creations, to reach the fullness of the hope He has planned for us. Our greatest hope can be found in His Son, Jesus Christ. When will we all be completely “rooted” in His eternal love? This takes time, sometimes a lifetime here on earth, but it truly begins at the time of our creation, and finally springs forth the very second we invite Him into our hearts. At that very moment, we become surrounded by His bountiful protection and provision. I ask you today to allow Him to plant you where He has planned for you to be! Don’t wait another second to grasp the roots of His everlasting love and beautiful possibilities that He will spring forth from all that He created for you to become.

Daniel 11:7

But out of a branch of her roots shall [one] stand up in his estate, which shall come with an army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and shall deal against them, and shall prevail:

Mark 11:22-24 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him,

Romans 8:38-39

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”