Roots

Roots

 

            Well, the carpenters have arrived, and usually this is a good thing. I like carpenters, The Carpenter from Nazareth has an invitation for Life and I hope none of us who dwell here ever cause Him to leave. I also have a couple of brothers who are carpenters and do wonderful work, I ply the trade when necessary to keep things moving on the farm. But these carpenters have come and set up shop uninvited and instead of building things up as a good carpenter ought, they are determined to cut and drill where they please with the purpose of carting off to their abode as much food from my pantry as they can pack.

            These are carpenter ants and their welcome when they first arrived was a bit chilly, even cold, but now has frozen. They must go.  We try to be very generous with our time and fortune but when a whole army invades with the purpose of absconding with everything that isn’t tied down it makes one feel like Leiningen and his ants. A battle plan must be drawn up. Leiningen did. So I must. You might remember the short story Leiningen Versus the Ants by Carl Stephenson? Well, he used a moat to his advantage but I don’t have a moat, I might have a mote in my eye at times that impairs my seeing things aright but I don’t have a moat.

            Sterner measures must be used. The first order of business was to track them, find out where they were coming from. Find their fortress, their supply house, where their strength comes from, their home, their roots, and hence the root of our problem.

            So I marshaled all the kids together and we went on an ant hunt. First we surrounded the house and looked meticulously on the walls to find where they were penetrating our fortress. Sure enough it was discovered that they were scaling the left pillar of the porch and pouring over the ramparts into the attic. From thence to fan out steal anything they could find in the house.

            Well, now that we found their trail we backtracked them. All of us crouched on our knees and slowly moved across the yard following a trail of ants back to their nest. After a time we indeed found where they were holed up. It’s at the foot of an ancient cherry tree in the yard. At its roots. The ants had bored into the rotten wood of the roots.  

            The cherry tree still stands, although large branches are dead. Some huge trunks have broken off during the years: But it still clings to life with what good roots remain. It kind of struck me. The confluence of two senses of the word roots meet here at the base of the tree. The root of the ants start here. The roots of the cherry tree start here. Both send out their life to gather food, both are responsible for the health of the growth. Both are responsible on how well the mature tree or hive prospers.

            Bad roots result in a unhealthy plant, it bears bad fruit, storm and tempest eventually overcome it and it perishes. Good roots result in a healthy plant, it bears good fruit, storm and tempest toss it and beat it up, but it survives.

            Couldn’t help but wonder. What kind of soil am I cultivating for my family such that its roots find healthy nourishment? That my children can be rooted in what is true, good and beautiful. When tempest toss their lives will they have the roots to withstand them and not fall? Will they be able in another sense to look back on their roots and find joy and solace there?

            Well I found this part that gives me great hope,

 

                Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.

 

            And we invited the Carpenter into our home and He promises to bring Life and it more abundantly. If he nourishes the roots how can I fail? Then,

 

Psalm 144:12 Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants, and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace.

               

            Food for thought as well as roots. Well, I’d better get back to the task of uprooting the uninvited carpenters before we have nothing left with to nourish body or soul. Might  save the roots of the ancient cherry tree in the process so it can continue to bear fruit and inspire. Well I’m rooting for all you too!

 

Have a great day!

David Cools