5-31-20 The Root Waterers

Quote: “Thank goodness for the people who watered me when my roots were still underground and there was no evidence of growth.”

Have you ever heard someone give the advice to “never forget your roots”?  Your roots are your beginnings.  It’s where you started – where your seeds were planted and where you started sprouting into the person you are today.

After I read this quote, I started thinking about all the people who watered my little tiny Jesus seeds.  These are the people that saw the potential in us, planted seeds, moved the dirt around, watered it, pulled the weeds, watered it some more – just hoping to see some sign of growth.  How frustrated were they when they kept tilling the soil but didn’t see evidence?  What made them stay and keep watering?

We owe our parents and grandparents and other family members so much.  They gave us life and have seen us through the harvest seasons and the famines.  But what about all the other waterers in our lives?  Teachers, coaches, mentors, leaders, pastors, etc.  If your waterers were anything like mine, it was Jesus that kept them watering and definitely not my fast growth!

I remember Becky, my Sunday School teacher.  She had a heart for young people.  She taught us Scriptures and told us Bible stories about Jesus and how much God loved us.  She did a play with us called, “We Like Sheep” and I can still to this day remember some of the songs!  And then there was Anna, one of my youth leaders.  She saw me struggling as a teen and always made me feel welcome at church, giving me incredible experiences and acceptance.  Then there was James, who made me so curious about the Holy Spirit part of the Trinity that it completely changed how I understood Christianity.  Then there was Les, who saw a young heart for Jesus and told me he believed in me.  And later in life there was Pamela, who came alongside and said she was in it for the long haul, to help me take risks and be who I was created to be.

I still consider myself a sapling for Jesus.  I feel like I am just scratching off the surface of what it means to live an abundant life in Christ.  There are so many people watering my little plant self that it would take me days to name them all.  But the number of people isn’t the point – it’s the fact that something made them stick around and keep watering.  They never stopped, even when the roots were still deep underground.

The Bible talks a lot about growth and seeds and tending the soil because that was all they did back then – work.  There wasn’t much time for entertainment!  They lived on fields, beside rivers, and lived off the land.  Jesus and Paul and many of the people in the Bible compared things people were struggling with by relating it to plants and sowing seeds to help them understand important principles.  One of them is in 2 Corinthians 9:6.  Paul says, “The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”

This verse explains what kept them watering – someone had seen potential in them and had watered them in life, and now it was their turn to sow and water new seeds.  Someone hadn’t given up on them and now it was time to pay it forward.

I challenge you to make a list today of your waterers and thank them.  Remind them that you are reaping an abundant life because of their sowing!  And don’t forget to tell them how you are sowing seeds in others.

Cheers to all the waterers out there who didn’t see growth but continued to water anyway!