The Secret to Rooting New Life (Part 1)

Copyright 2013 by Sarah G. Pemberton

(Thanks to several preacher/teacher friends, whose recent teachings added detail to the previous personal inspiration for this article.)

Sometimes God speaks to us profoundly through the most ordinary everyday experiences.  This past week, I had such an experience.

A neighbor recently asked me for cuttings of my best rosebush.   It never occurred to me that one might root roses that way, although my best hydrangea was given to me by a neighbor of my in-laws years ago, who rooted it very simply in a bucket of sand, which he kept watered.  But I had never known most cuttings from shrubs, especially, to root this easily for me.  My father-in-law had told me years ago of some product which enables one to root cuttings of plants, but I never can seem to find anything like it at Wal-Mart.  My neighbor who asked for the rose cutting said she used the same, and got it from Home Depot, or some such place.  Some plant cuttings will root profusely just by being kept in a vase with water with plant food.  But others seem to require a little more TLC.  I finally decided this week to check out a YouTube video to see how the experts do it.

What I found was not only simple, but contained a profound spiritual lesson.

In the video, an English gentleman demonstrated how cuttings can be easily rooted without the rooting powder my father-in-law and neighbor had suggested.  He said, “It’s quite simple.  You take the cutting, and you wound the cut end a little; then you dip it in a little bit of honey around the wound, and stick it in a pot of good soil, keep it watered regularly, and it will form new roots.”

Wow!  The picture was suddenly so clear to me what God was highlighting:  When we feel lonely and cut off from others, the very healing we need to revive our lives may feel at first like a worse wound than what led to our isolation to begin with.  But what resurrects Christ’s life in us, is wounding mixed with the sweet revelation of Him in us, rooting us deeply into the true hope for which we were designed to be planted, or established in our faith.  Only then, will we grow to be fruitful for His Kingdom.  But if we reject that wounding and stay isolated, we will die.