I sat in my car the other day and watched as 45 mile an hour winds blew around loose debris, overturned garbage cans, shook cars, buildings, and power lines, ripped off dead tree branches, and generally made a mess of the Puget Sound. Just off to my left was a pretty good sized magnolia tree and I watched as the winds rocked it, whipped it this way and that, and bent it backward and forward. Still it held fast. There were no dead branches being ripped off, no leaves or blossoms being carried on the winds. Instead, in spite of being rocked, whipped and tossed to and fro, this healthy specimen was pliable, bending but not breaking. I realized how firmly anchored it was in the ground, and how well nourished it must have been. And I heard in my spirit, “what shall separate us from the love of Christ?” 

The scripture is Romans 8:38 and it goes on to say “Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? …No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We all go through hard times in this life. I know I sometimes feel persecuted, degraded, stripped naked and flogged. Sometimes I feel as if the very demons of hell have been unleashed on my behalf. It’s enough to make any normal man throw up his hands and walk away. But it’s what we Christians are rooted in and anchored in that makes the difference. 

One of my grandmother’s favorite songs was “In times like these, we need a Savior. In times like these, we need an anchor. Be very sure, be very sure, your anchor holds, and grips a solid Rock. That rock is Jesus. Not only do I hold on to Him, but He holds on to me as well. There are times when I’m being buffeted about, and I get so tired of the fight that I don’t feel like a conqueror at all, let alone more than. But it’s in those times, when my grip seems weakest, that He holds on to me even tighter. That’s when I understand the scripture that says His strength is made perfect in my weakness. 

Psalms 1 talks about the blessed man who is like a tree planted by rivers of water. His roots grow deep and wide. He is fully nourished, strong, branches spreading wide, giving shelter and shade to all in need. He produces fruit in his season. Proverbs says the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. That means that as I am nourished and growing, I produce fruit that nourishes and causes growth in others. I become fruitful. I multiply. I reproduce and bring forth more fruit after my kind. 

This is our purpose in Christ, and this is why the enemy wants so desperately to uproot us all and cause our crops to fail before their season. We have a work to do. There is a world out there waiting for us, looking for something and someone to show them the way to the tree of life. Without realizing it, they too seek to be rooted in Christ.