May 19 | Psalm 1:1-3; Proverbs 3:18

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DAILY READING

Psalm 1:1-3;Proverbs 3:18

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REFLECTION

We Got Roots

By Pam Mann

God is into trees, isn’t He? The Bible starts and ends with trees as major players. Today we read from Psalms and Proverbs in the middle of the Bible. What do we read? More trees!

This past month, our family lost our final ash tree. She was a grand, triple-trunked giantess that ruled our backyard landscape for decades. She got ash bore treatments every spring, but this year a tenacious woodpecker let us know she was not winning against infestation. One of the arborists who cut her down described all the insect damage he saw. “Lots of ants, too,” he said. “They’ll be moving to your other trees now.” Isn’t that a grim thought? It’s a reminder that we live in a fallen world from a guy who fells trees for a living.

The tree images we love in the Bible, however, are not riddled with disease. They are not merely robustly alive. They are trees of life! Life-givers! The Proverbs tree is an image of how God’s wisdom works in our lives to bless us. The Psalm 1 tree is the believer who trusts in God through thick and thin because her roots run deep. She is hydrated even in drought.

As a young person, living in West Africa, I gave a Bible study on Psalm1 at a women’s conference. A lot of the women came from tiny Doowaayo villages where the Fulani market language (which I was still learning) was rarely used. A young man (I'll call

Usmanu because I don’t recall his name) translated my Fulani into their language. Note: When you employ a translator, you state an idea, pause so the translator can communicate that idea, and then state your next point. A good speaker-translator team quickly gets into a rhythm that is quite pleasant, even to those who don’t need the translation. The translator ideally mirrors the speaker’s pace and emotion. Usmanu knew what he was doing. We had that nice rhythm going. Then came the main point: the deep roots of the believer thrive on the living waters of God.

I don’t know what suddenly happened with this guy. He went rogue. He waxed eloquent with gestures and vocal dynamics I hadn’t used. I gave him a sideways glance and head tilt, thinking I might rein him back in. Nothing doing. Meanwhile, the ladies were hanging on his every word. I’d never met this guy before. I didn’t know what he was saying, but I prayed he was preaching the Word. I could tell by his movements that he was jazzed about the root connection to deep water in dry times. Because northern Cameroon gets extreme heat and drought, these women knew firsthand the distress that trees can experience and encouraged Usmanu with a few Amens. Finally, Usmanu realized his misstep and grinned sheepishly at me. I smiled and nodded. God got the point across. Little else mattered.

Well, this deep root connection to God is something to get jazzed about, isn’t it? Not only do we have the tree of life awaiting us in heaven, but we also have God’s wisdom available to us in our present need like a tree of life. But wait! There’s more! We ourselves can be like a tree of life as God builds in us deep, deep roots into His Word. When life goes sideways, we are not blown away. We got roots! Our roots sink deep into the deep, deep love of Jesus.

PRAYER

Ah, thank you, Lord, for the Tree of Life that awaits us in heaven. Thank you that You are to us a Tree of Life that protects, nourishes, and heals us. And thank you that Your Spirit builds in us deep, deep roots into Your Word.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PAM MANN

I first joined UALC when my husband (then my fiancé) and I were college students involved in youth ministry. God has used UALC to nurture our family’s faith, even in our years outside the U.S. I’ve participated in UALC ministries with kids, art, prayer, exercise, ESL, and Bible teaching. I do all the fun church things.