Tiny Roots

There are no words for perfect beauty.

Only… this:

We took a prayer time this morning. We danced and sang, and when I told Luke and Kaylee we were going to pray and they had three choices — to raise their hands to God, to fold them, or to put their hands out in front of them — this happened.

I was praying loudly, but I heard you praying over me, kiddo.

I didn’t understand a single one of those words except for A-MAM, which came with mine, but I’d bet anything they were the sweetest words to God this morning.

God talks about this, the devotion we’re building with family prayer times:

Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’” Luke 13.6-9

Only, this talks about the kind of sprout that doesn’t grow. Doesn’t pray. Doesn’t lift poised arms and hearts to a living God who loves your prayers. And because it doesn’t poise its tiny hands and tiny hearts before God, it doesn’t bear any fruit. It takes up soil, God’s richness of life, and gives nothing in return. No fruit.

God uses this analogy of trees with us again and again in the Bible, because it’s apropos to our development in him. Only when our roots sink deep into God do we start to bear fruit. We have to turn to the water of his Holy Spirit, the rich nutrients of worship, and the cleaning and pruning of the Word to become a tree with branches that reach to the heavens. Or a child.

With your tiny hands.

The Bible says,

For as the soil makes the sprout come up
and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
and praise spring up before all nations. Isaiah 63.11

That’s exactly what God did today in you. And if your parents — Mommy and me — are faithful, and with a ton of God’s grace, he’ll do it every day for the rest of your life. It’s a legacy we’re starting together.

Really, it’s more like tiny roots.

Little ployable shoots that push through the soil to find their way to God. Loving him. Worshiping. Finding himself more alive in God’s presence. It’s exactly what God’s Word talks about. And it’s what will leave you with the sweet taste of the abundance of God and his Holy Spirit as fruit in your life. Starting today, tiny roots pushed toward God to drink deeply of Him forever.

Tiny roots and tiny hands.