taproot

There is a place along the wooded path I visit these days where the roadway has been cut from a small hill.  It has left a cross section of ground where tall pines grow up from the surface and the roots are clearly visible in the excavated side of the hill.  Clearly visible are the roots running down into the clay from the trees above.  That which is normally invisible has been made visible.  The pine trees have large taproots running vertically downward several feet.  These roots are about half the thickness of the tree trunks above the surface.  I thought about the functions of the taproot.  It anchors the visible tree and permits it to grow tall and true despite the winds that blow and bend the trunk.  The tree trunks are flexible but would not be able to stand without an anchor.  Secondly, the taproot becomes a primary source of water and nutrients from the ground to feed the growing tree.  I thought about the Lord in our lives.  You might think of your life as the visible part of the tree...growing up and up above ground.  But we cannot stand against the wind and we cannot grow without the water and nutrition the Lord, Himself, provides.  He is our taproot...normally invisible and beneath the surface of our lives.  If you could see yourself in cross section, you would realize that God is working beneath the surface and He is holding you and He is feeding you and He is anchoring you.

Psalm 80:⁸ You have brought a vine out of Egypt;

         You have cast out the nations, and planted it.
 ⁹ You prepared room for it,
         And caused it to take deep root, 
         And it filled the land.