Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. John 15:4.

I went outside early this morning to take advantage of last night’s rain which had softened the ground. My intention was to plant marigolds while the soil was workable and to get them out of their root bound plastic pots.   I planned to get that one job done and then come inside. Two hours later, I was covered in mud, my gardening shoes were caked with loam and I really needed a shower. Once again I took a different path into the garden – and had learned a lesson.

Last year I planted two small baptisia plants as a backdrop to annuals. The plants looked pretty in their small pots, but I didn’t know how they would fare here. Well, they fared superbly,  growing almost four feet tall in one season. They were too big for the space intended. I have no problem in digging up plants, transplanting them – or dumping them into the  trailer – so I started to dig .  It was daunting. Their roots were long, skinny tubers embedded deeply into the soil, spreading web-like in every direction. I had not expected such   tangled roots coiled  beneath the soil. If I hadn’t taken them out today, they would have taken over the entire bed.   Baptisia is also called “false indigo” and can grow to six feet tall. The plant has a very deep tap root so as to survive dry conditions and is obviously very hardy. I wasn’t paying attention to what I’d planted.

I  believe that as in the natural, so in the spiritual.  I thought about what’s allowed to take root in our lives, about things which are momentarily so attractive  that we don’t bother to ask, “What’s actually beneath the surface causing this to flourish?”   How often do we go after something which appears  good  but  is in reality a very bad choice. I’ve succumbed more times than I care to acknowledge and have ended up with tangled root balls  growing into uncontrollable messes in my life.

Scripture says a lot about roots and rootedness. Isaiah prophesies that Messiah will spring from the root of Jesse and points to Jesus.

Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And He will delight in the fear of the LORD, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear; Isaiah 11:1-5.

The prophet foretells that the root and the branch bearing fruit will be unlike anyone else and that Messiah’s appearance will repel rather than attract those around Him. God’s Spirit will rest on Him, but He won’t be recognized by His appearance.

For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. Isaiah 53:1-3

It is a warning not to be deceived by   the devil’s trademark tactics: to make what is evil look very, very attractive. He knows exactly what   pretties  entice us. Security. Love. Possessions. Spiritual pride. False doctrines. If we give in, before we know it,   “false indigo” takes root in the heart. We’re  over run by an invasion.

This morning I was strongly reminded that our spiritual roots have to be planted in Christ, abiding in Him alone so we can branch out and bear good fruit.  There is no other root except Jesus.  Without Him, without the  deeply rooted Word of God , all manner of deception threatens to take over, entangling,  strangling and trying to take over  the ground promised to us.