We are building a pergola outside our kitchen window seat. I thought climbing roses would be perfect growing up the lattice attached to the support pillars.
I was searching through the David Austin catalog of roses (my favorite breeder of English roses) and came across a video on how to plant bare root roses. I wanted to be sure I didn’t mess this up, so I went to the video site and found these instructions:
1. Soak the bare roots in a bucket of water for a few days to be sure the roots are well-hydrated.
2. Dig the hole where roses are to be planted wider and deeper than the fully spread-out roots.
3. Mix the soil from the hole with humus and, if soil is dense, a bit of sand.
4. Fill the hole with water, then add enough of the soil mixture in the hole to give the roots a rich place to start.
5. Place the rose in the hole, spread roots out, and gently fill in around the roots with the soil mix, so that the top of the roots is just below ground level. Gently press the soil in place.
I couldn’t help wishing that new and raw-root believers were planted in the soil of God’s love so gently and carefully.
What if the spirit of our worship was like the water people so need to hydrate their vulnerable roots? And what if the space where hearts are planted were wider and deeper than the tender roots, so that no tight and harsh confines would bruise their thirsty exploration?
And what if any hard clay of legalism were mixed with the soil of compassion to enrich, without bruising or breaking, their fragile tendrils of joy and enthusiasm?
And what if our greatest reward for serving the Lord was to see in new believers the greening leaves begin to unfold, and new shoots begin to bud and blossom?
And what if all of us could find our roots going “deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love” so that we could “be able to feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is; and to experience that love for ourselves, though it is so great we will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at last, we will be filled up with God himself.” (Eph. 3:17-19 NLT)
