Rooted

Recently we reached the end of the school term, and I happened to have the morning off on one of the last days of school.  This was fortuitous, because Anna's class was taking an end-of-term field trip: a hike about half the way down the escarpment to see a huge fig tree that sits on the edge of a sheer cliff.  Now that is my kind of field trip!  So I tagged along, and was surprised by what I found.

It was a beautiful morning, with abundant sunshine and cool air, not unlike early October in central North Carolina.  It took perhaps 45 minutes to walk down, and we found a beautiful spot with awesome views of the valley.

Anna, with the floor of the Rift Valley behind her.

A large fig tree; the clay that you can see on the left behind the tree is the far side of a ravine.

 I don't know how long the fig tree has been standing there, but it has obviously been a long time.  When you stand back and look at the tree, however, you start to notice something more.  The roots are huge, with some about a foot in diameter and wrapping around boulders.  I followed one root until it finally went underground, at which point it was still quite large.

Just before the root goes underground; that is a 1 liter Nalgene on top for scale

What really impressed me was how far this root had gone at this size before it disappeared.  The picture below is taken from the same spot from which I took the one above.

The large tree in the background belongs to the root above; both pictures were taken from the same spot

This got me to thinking about roots.  Some are quite small and fragile, like the roots on the cilantro that we grow in a pot in our garden.  It took no effort at all to pull up this plant.

Some are huge and incredibly strong, like the fig tree's roots.  They withstand torrential rains and the nightly winds that howl down the escarpment into the valley.  Still others are of medium strength, but break and decay in the elements.

People are like that too.  Some seem to have strong roots that can withstand anything, while others get buffeted about by every storm that comes along.  We set our roots down into lots of things.  For some it is places, like a hometown or a favorite school.  For others, their roots are in other people, like a spouse or best friend.  Still others are rooted in their identity...as a doctor, a teacher, a dad, a musician, or whatever role they see themselves filling.  This week I have been taking care of a newborn in the ICU.  I met him at about 6 am on Monday, when he was about 20 or 30 minutes old and was struggling to breathe with low blood oxygen despite being on CPAP.  He had a very stressful delivery, and he is suffering from meconium aspiration (he passed stool before he was born and aspirated some of it) and cerebral edema (brain swelling).  He is on a mechanical ventilator and is deeply sedated, and we are giving him drugs to keep his blood pressure up.  We hope and pray that when we finally wean the sedation, that he will not have suffered brain damage from his rough start.  What has impressed me so much about his mother is her attitude and her hope.  Every day she reminds me that the Lord will take care of her boy...who really is HIS boy...through it all.  What strong roots she must have!

There are so many things that we can try to put our roots down into, but most of them don't last.  Friends move away, spouses die, towns grow too big or they fade away, and that old school campus becomes the domain of a new generation of faculty and students.  My fig tree was anchored in and around rocks - big ones.  As a result, it has stood for years.  I have been asking myself a lot of questions about my own roots.  What am I really rooted in?  What am I doing to nurture and grow my roots?  Am I prepared for the inevitable storm?  Sometimes I don't like the answers to those questions.

What about your roots?

Rick

Colossians 2:6-8

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

⁶ Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, ⁷ having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.
⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.