Roots

I will admittedly say I do not have a green thumb. Planting flowers, plants, or trees has never been my thing... nor is keeping them alive. Give me a bouquet of flowers and I'll put them in a vase, water them as I can, and then hope for the best. I do secretly hope to one day develop a green thumb because I think there is something incredibly beautiful about growing something, but right now in Colorado is not the time.

Recently though, my heart and soul is craving roots. Roots that grow deep, roots that breed life, and roots that thrive. 

First, I desire to be "rooted and established in love" (Eph 3:17). Oh, what it would it is to be fully rooted in the Lord's love. Being rooted in His love allows for us to begin "to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge" (3:18). 

It's the love of Christ that loved us before we repented; the love of Christ that loves us as high as the heavens; the love of Christ that went into the deepest pit of Hell to save us; and the love of Christ that goes before us and purposes all things according to His will. It is the love of Christ that cannot be fully measured or understood and is truly a profound mystery (5:32). 

It is in that love that I want to be rooted and it is in that love that I want to find my hope. 

Secondly, I long to grow roots here at Crooked Creek and here in Fraser, CO. It's easy to make the statement that I will only live here one year of my life, so roots are not that necessary; but I am fully convinced that the Lord wants to do a mighty work here in my life while I am here in Fraser, therefore, I need roots. 

My heart desires to be rooted in our intern community, intertwining with one another in ways that draw us close through openness and vulnerability. It is through that intertwining that I pray we push one another towards Christ and that we grow together as a body of believers. 

I pray that roots are grown deep in relationships and I pray that the Lord speaks through those relationships. It is through roots that extend wide and deep that we begin to be known and understood. Being fully known and understood makes me nervous, but I believe those connections are necessary and are of my heart's deepest desires. 

And my prayer is for roots in this small ski town in the mountains of Colorado. My prayer is to find some grounding here as the Lord works in my life and in the lives of the people in Fraser. I long to feel connected somewhere and the somewhere the Lord has me right now is Fraser, CO. So I got a library card and am attending a church in the valley and will be helping with Young Life in Grand County, because the Lord is drawing me nearer to Him through these roots. 

These second roots, the ones at Crooked Creek and in Fraser, they are enhancing the first roots, the truest roots. The roots that go down deep in my soul and my being, the roots that are clinging to knowing and being established in the Lord's love, are being nurtured by the roots that growing here in Colorado.