Deeply Rooted

 There she was, a simplistic beauty, misplaced. An attention drawn to herself, unintentionally,
because of who she was and how she thrived.
She was a garden flower blooming in the wilderness.

But wasn't it just beautiful?

The way she grew right where she had been planted? The way she allowed her roots to run deep, intertwining with those around her. Somehow stunning the way her vivid yellow contrasted with the drab colors of the dried, desert-like ground. Right next to the gentle brook, the daffodil's courage spoke to my heart.

The wildflower, blooming anywhere and everywhere, I have been.
A whirlwind of fluctuating emotion and chaotic beauty.
Carefree, so vivaciously spreading life.

I've seen the garden flowers. The ones that settle and grow deep roots of love and joy. Right where they are, steadfast and immovable. Devoted to where they've been called. I've admired them.

Here I am, though, a daffodil in the wild, a wildflower in a garden. Misplaced and yet,

this is right where I have been planted.

The daffodil inspired within me a prayer. Because I've been praying, I've been longing for the day when I'm planted elsewhere. I've been hoping for the day when I get to be a wildflower in a field. And yet,
I'm a garden flower blooming in the wilderness and
it's not natural,
but it's where I've been planted.
The prayer blossomed out of a heart not my own, my flesh would have denied it.

God didn't call me to be here, in this garden, to sit still in the little plastic carton that new plants come in.
No, He's been waiting with His shovel and His spade, waiting for the day when I would fully surrender and allow Him to plant me. Where I finally let Him cultivate me right here. Right in this place of burden and beauty.
It's not that His promises haven't been enough. They have.

"Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:14)

 Nourishment and life, he has promised me. If only I give Him my roots.

"Rooted and grounded in love." (Eph. 3:17)

The ground is fertile. He promised. Yet, why am I so afraid?

I think it is fear of the known. I thrive on the unknown, I thrive on adventure.
I fear sameness and ritual and habit.
I fear being unfruitful.
And it is that very thing that I become when I allow my roots to be suffocated in this entrapment they are in.

The ground is fertile. The soil is prepared. The command is undeniable. The Gardener is trustworthy, He has loving hands, stained from years of planting, tenderly caring for hearts, just like mine.

So my dangerous prayer has become,

"Take this wayward heart, this heart that thinks it knows best.
This heart that believes it has been designed for adventure,
Plant it. Cultivate it so that the roots run deep. 
Our hearts were not made to be adventurous, 
our hearts were not made to stay.
 Our hearts were made to please His.
Our hearts were made for Him.
My heart, captured by the sweetest of chains, is crying out to you.
Plant me so my roots grow deep in your soil and they intertwine with others;
so that when you do transplant me, 
processes are difficult.
Painful it will be to detangle me from this place.
Pieces of me will be left behind,
I'll never be the same. 
This heart is yours.

I get it now. Life is a journey. I understand.
So relational is my Author. Each adventure and each new season given so I may know Him more, so I may give Him more. The revelation is the same as always. Just as it will always be, Just as it was for so many others. Ezekiel bore Israel's punishment because He saw God, He saw Heaven. Isaiah, John, Paul.
The revelation is Jesus. It is the value of Him. It is my sinfulness in light of His beauty.
It will always result in giving myself empty to the One who made me.
It will always result in obedience in the call He has on my life.
Because I have seen His value. I know Him.

Will it result in obedience for you?
Will a revelation of Him result in a prayer to be deeply rooted, right where you have been planted until He calls you somewhere else??

Ephesians 3:16-20
That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith-that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have the strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.

The Message of Reconciliation

The sky was consumed with darkness. The midday sun flickered off becoming an obvious void in the sky. A three hour darkness cast over the land.
The criminals hanging on the trees in agony, The sinner, the Perfect and the forgiven. The devoted standing at the foot of the cross to the One who had claimed to be their Savior. They stood, brokenhearted at the fate of the One whom they had loved, the One who had given them perfect love.
The agony of the moment was beyond seeing the pain of the criminals, it was seemingly becoming the most hopeless moment in history. A sinking feeling in all their hearts as they remembered who Jesus said He was, yet forgetting what He had said about three days time.

Where was the Hope now? Where was the Saving Grace? What does this mean for me?

His Voice pierced the darkness, the fullness of His agony ringing out among the crowd: "My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?" The realness of the moment permeating the air as every person feels what it means to have God turn his back.
The ground began to shake, and as always, things were happening behind the scenes. The temple curtain between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place was torn in two, so we could now commune face to face without a priest. Rocks shattered, tombs came open, the dead rose again. Yet, the grief seemed too much to bear, Jesus was dead. The best man on earth, our only Hope was dead.

And for three days there was mourning. The disciples wondering if they really had wasted three years of following, giving everything they had to a man who called Himself God. The women grieved outside of the tomb, pacing, weeping wondering what more they could do. The world was in waiting. The vacancy that spread over the earth with the presence of Jesus amiss was intense.
Satan was laughing in our faces. He thought He had won, He thought he had conquered.

But Jesus rose. Three days of turmoil and Jesus arose from the grave, coming alive. Three days of immense tragedy. Three days of endlessness and Jesus rises again.
The morning when all things came into fruition, the morning when the ultimate promise was fulfilled. The morning that is the reason for our faith happened.
The women appeared to the tomb, hoping to do something and it was empty. An angel who bore the great and awesome news, The Lord is Risen.
Frantically running to tell the disciples, Jesus met them, and said, "Rejoice," the Greek word can also mean, "Be well, Thrive." Jesus was saying, look, I've risen again, There is reason to thrive again! The long night has ended and the morning has come.

I love Matthew's Gospel because of the Story. He begins with fashioning the beautiful Savior, Jesus. Displaying Him for His characteristics and compassion. We fall in love with the character of Jesus. We root for Him, We choose to follow Him to wherever He will go. He becomes our Healer, our Lord, and our deep friend. We hang onto every word, He silences our storms. We grow to love Him through His love for us. And when the time in the story comes where Jesus is taken captive our hearts are on edge.
This is my Jesus, You cannot take Him! We become Peter, chopping off ears in anger, wanting to defend our friend and keep him to ourselves. We are broken when the crowd chooses a criminal instead of our perfect Lord. We stand with the women at the foot of the cross lamenting His death. We mourn for three days wondering if all our hopes, all of our decisions had been useless. Did we fall for a lunatic? Did we believe a liar? Or was there still more to come?
And as we walk to the tomb with the woman, preparing for another day of sadness, another day of grief, we reach the climax. Just when we begin to wonder if the story will have a dumb ending and we wasted our time on a story such as this, we see the glorious angel sitting on the edge of the open tomb. We momentarily get angry, thinking someone has stolen our Lord, we don't quite want to believe that maybe there is hope to this situation.
The women saw the angel and he said, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus...He is not here, for he has risen!!!"
Matthew's story ends differently than the other gospels. The others include sightings of Jesus and what He did in his last days before He rose up to Heaven. It includes the many who believed. But Matthew is different. He shares one story.
It is the story with the mission that Jesus leaves us with. He takes his disciples up onto a mountain. And He says these stunning words,

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. A behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

He leaves us with a commission. He says, "We aren't done here. What I did while I was here is what you're going to do. Everything that I have done, you must do. Make disciples, teaching them about My Father, me and The Spirit who will indwell them and empower them. And I will be with you. Always."

I've been thinking, on Easter weekend, we get dressed up fancy and spend time with family. We go on egg hunts and talk about the Easter bunny. We eat lots of candy and think of springtime. But I wonder, is there more? We gather in a church and sing songs of the death and resurrection. But are we just singing with empty words? We drink of the cup and eat of the body, doing it in remembrance of our Lord. But I wonder, are we just consuming?

Because Jesus surely didn't come to give you an opportunity to buy a new dress or wear sandals for the first time that year. He didn't want you to just do those things. Because the book didn't end with his resurrection. Yes, the death and rising again are the climax, the most important part. They are essential, it is the beginning of our relationship with Him. And to those that know Him, Jesus gives the greatest invitation.

You, the bearers of the greatest Hope, share it. Proclaim it from the rooftops, declare it in the cities and whisper it underground. Tell the world of the Hope that you have. Teach them of my love, teach them how to love. You, the bearers of Light, shine forth. You, He is sending you. He has sent you to the right here and now, to every single moment that you have breath in your lungs you have been sent.
Go.
Make Disciples.
Baptize them.
He will be with you.

2 Corinthians 5:19-20
Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting us the message of reconciliations. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

The message of reconciliation has been entrusted to my hands. I am a living, breathing testimony of reconciliation. Therefore, I, as an ambassador, a representative in a foreign land, sent to bring a message will be a vessel in which God will make his appeal to the world.
In this foreign land I will have to learn a new language, ac a new way, to reach those to whom I've been sent.

The greatest gift didn't stop when we received it, it was the first domino effect. The Hope spread like wildfire, gradually taking over the Roman empire and ultimately the world.
So on this Easter weekend, don't just go to church. Don't sing songs without understanding the meaning. Change you heart, devote yourself to the Lord and go. Ask the Lord where you are supposed to go. Ask Him who you are supposed to disciple and baptize. And trust that He is with you. Listen for His Voice, rely heavily on His Word. Let your life being a living testimony of God's message of reconciliation.

The ground is beginning to shake because Christ the Lord didn't stay dead. He is here and He is redeeming His church back to Himself, preparing a Home for the Great Wedding Feast. The Stone is rolled away, don't stay in your grave clothes. Come alive.