Today I’m linking up with Lisa-Jo at The Gypsy Mama for Five-Minute Friday.
Join me!
The rules: Write for five minutes. No editing, revising, overthinking, or backtracking. Just write.
Today’s Topic: Roots
Sometimes having a scattered life can lead to that feeling that there are no real roots. When pieces of existence span oceans and continents, knowing where exactly those roots are deeply planted is difficult.
The first decade was just that.
A cute little green house in a Twin Cities suburb. Job bouncing and church hopping, waiting for what He had for us.
We knew it was something, and it was.
Three years after we moved into that cute little house, whose color resembled that of pistachio ice cream, we pulled up the roots we’d put down, hopped on a plane, and flew to the other side of the world.
Those roots grew differently in the tropics.
Though we planted and watered, things just blossomed in a different way. Five years of wonderful and stressful, of stretching and challenging, of loving and living made us into different people. Gave us different worldviews, insights, and most importantly, lifelong friends.
And yet the roots were not to remain there forever.
Once more we pulled them up…strangely, far more painful than the first time…and moved them to an at-the-time obscure, almost-suburb of Chicago.
We planted them and we daily water them because, for now, this is where they should grow.
We have a daughter now, and she needs a place to call home. We are investing in the life around us, determined that these roots will stick no matter if there’s something next or if this is it.
And while, in this place, it is good to have roots and we love that they are planted here, my Father daily reminds me of something.
That this world is not my home.
As important as it is to have that place on earth to be my home, rooting myself in Him and His Word, His Promises, and His Love is what will truly bring growth.
My dear friend said it best in a song she wrote…
Lord, plant Your Word in my soul, only You make me whole.
Father, keep my roots planted in the right place.
Love it – so easy to forget where our focus and real roots should be!
Stopping by from the link up!
Elizabeth
http://onegloriousambition.blogspot.com/2012/11/five-minute-friday-roots.html
Thanks for stopping by, Elizabeth!
Marvelous post.
thanks
yes, we finally feel as though we have roots here now too. For many years we have felt we could pull up stakes and head somewhere new. But now, the roots are deeper, and while that can be a comfort, it can also create a wondering of what we could be missing. Thanks for the reminder that it is in God, not the world, that we have made our roots.
Sometimes I think of what I’m missing out on in the places my roots once were. But God has always given the grace to be content in each piece of the journey…and, honestly, this is my favorite so far. And you’re part of the reason why! Hope you have a good day, friend.
Thanks for your words, Mel. We, too, have put roots down in various places over 30 years of marriage…and are in the process of pulling up roots yet again to move we know not where. Your words encourage me that this painful phase will eventually pass…and in the meantime I need to keep my eyes on Jesus and my (eventual) forever home where I will be planted for eternity.
Oh, Jill…I’m sorry for the pain of, once again, pulling up roots. It’s so hard.
I said a prayer for you…praying especially that God will bless this next piece of the journey, wherever He takes you. He’s Good and has blessings waiting for you! 