Your Roots Are Showing

The hydrangeas are beginning to bloom in our part of the world. This is the best they will look all summer. By the time fall comes around, the heat and scorching sun will take their toll.

Hydrangeas are fascinating plants. They bloom pink in alkaline soil. Blue flowers indicate a more acidic pH. It's like litmus paper in chemistry class, only reversed. Soil acidity isn't the whole picture. What turns the flowers blue is the presence of free aluminum. In alkaline soil, aluminum is chemically bound and unavailable to plants. But in acidic soil, the aluminum is available in a form the plants can use.

My presentation to others says a lot about where I am rooted. It helps for me to be immersed in good religion, to be taught right and wrong, and to be grafted into the traditions of Christianity and Judaism. But, as one seminary professor once told me, "Some of the meanest people in the world go to church." Without an awareness of God's presence and a relational connection to him, good teaching and religious activity can't help me in my actual lived life.

To Jewish leaders, Jesus said, "You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." (John 5:39-40) The life that I bring to the world can only be found in my attachment to Christ. His presence with me is the essential nutrient.