The purpose of roots

They are like trees
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.

Psalms 1:3 (NRSV)

I grew up on a farm and one of our summer chores was to pull weeds in the sugar beet fields. There was something deliciously satisfying to grab a tall fat weed and extract it from the soil with the long spidery roots intact. I knew that weed was dead and gone.

A weed is tenacious in its one goal: to reproduce. A weed shot down roots, sent up leaves so that it could produce seed. A weed’s fruit was its seed.

I have seen weeds with one tender slender root still gripping the soil, alive and growing. I’d have thought that slicing off most of the roots would slay that weed, but I learned the value of strong roots.

We were fighting weeds because they tenaciously stole the moisture and nutrients from the crops we had planted. But while we fought weeds with one hand, we nurtured the sugar beet plant with the other. What we battled in the weeds we encouraged in the beets.

We wanted strong roots and fruit in its season.

In Psalms 1:3, I am reminded of the same principle, the importance of roots in producing fruit. I think we often are satisfied with the image of sinking our roots into the streams of water. Spiritually, we want our life to soak in the living water of God, the nourishing of his presence.

How do we know we have allowed our roots to go deep? Because we are producing strong leaves and fruit. If it isn’t yet the season for fruit, the fruit is coming.

Our purpose, like that tenacious weed or sweet sugar beet, is to produce fruit. The roots are only means. Am I committed to reproducing, to producing fruit? Or only sending my roots deeper and deeper?

Even a weed knows the purpose of roots is to turn out fruit.