Hello everyone.  We’re back from vacation and we had a glorious time.  Our daily schedule consisted of reading at the beach, swimming, eating, sleeping and more of the same.  The weather was beautiful and it was a wonderful time of recharging.  My friend Schalk always say that a battery never recharges by just sitting there, it needs to be plugged into something.  We definitely plugged in and we’re ready to rumble, or keeping with the battery metaphor TO SHOCK.

While we were on vacation, one of the trees in our yard fell over.  It was a big old tree and the high winds and constant rain shattered the roots in three pieces.  It was so sad to see the empty space in our yard when we came back.  What also saddens me is the fact that there was something wrong with the tree’s development and root system and worst of all, from the outside, we couldn’t see a thing. Although the tree looked fine from the outside, it was dying on the inside.  Earlier today I spoke to my neighbour and he expressed his joy at the tree being chopped off.  It produced a never-ending stream of leaves in his pool.  Greg told me that he noticed that the tree was dying; the colour of the leaves was brown.

It’s so easy to live our lives in ways that look splendid from the outside – yet inside something is not quite all right.  A root system might be plugged into the wrong nutrients, or it may be too shallow.  Trees and our lives have very complicated root systems, sensitive systems that have to be nourished in a healthy way over the long haul. 

It’s now five years since we pulled our roots out of a poisonous and destructive environment, the falling tree was a good reminder to keep the hidden life healthy.

6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him,  7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Colossians 2:6-7