Roots....

Roots run deep. Have you ever tried to pull up one of those wild growing weird trees? You know, the ones that grow in the flower bed and every time you chop it down and dig out the roots, it grows back. It just seems that you can never get all of that root!

I remember watching the movie A Walk in the Clouds. It is a great romantic movie about two strangers that find each other but he is not accepted by her family. There are too many differences in the way they are raised and the traditions of their families. The father is totally against his daughter's marriage to this young man who has "no roots".

You see her family had deep roots. Their family had been living and growing together closely for many years. They had kept the family together through rich traditions and celebrations. They enjoyed each other and valued their family connections above all else. They also had a strong leader in the father of the family. He above all others, held fast to the family bond and the honor that their family name possessed. Anything or anyone that was "not of them" had to be feared and guarded against. Anyone with roots from a different heritage would spoil the purity of the families' roots. However, she saw value in someone with different roots and wanted to change her families' view of others.

Roots.......they run deep. They are with us at the beginning of life. They grow steadily to find more nourishment. They spread out and anchor even deeper to provide stability in the storms. As they continue to grow they provide greater ability for life to reach higher and wider so that it may become more than ever imagined. Roots are the basis of life. Without strong roots, life struggles, may wither and even die.

I am proud of my roots. My heritage runs deep. My roots come from a strong family tree. The roots of my life have been the foundations that have held my faith steady in times of great storms. They have also nourished and encouraged my growth both spiritually and physically in this life. When weeds of the world threatened to choke out my growth or my life came under attack from the winds, famines and storms that wanted to destroy me, my roots held me steady. I owe who I am to my roots.

In the movie there was a great fire storm. This fire storm threatened to destroy everything that the family had worked generations to build. After a night of fighting the flames back with every soul that was able, the family saw that all their efforts to save the roots of their family by themselves had been destroyed. Life as they knew it was over. The family's heritage gone. All hope seemed to be gone. But they had forgotten something very important, their roots had begun with a belief that they could become a great family. The stranger reminded them of the heart of their roots, the ONE where all life had come from. He showed them that as long as the heart is right and soil fertile, then roots would continue to grow and become stronger again.

Roots....they run very deep. They are hard to dig up or destroy. Fire can not burn them out. Storms only make them dig deeper. No matter how you try, your roots are always a part of you holding you to who you are meant to be. Roots.....