Taking Root: Drink In The Son
Taking Root: Drink In The Son
The righteous shall . . . grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Psalm 92:12
In Phillip Keller’s book As a Tree Grows, he explores the comparison the Bible makes between Christians and cedars. He points out that every tree in the forest competes with all its fellows for light. On the upper surface of each leaf or needle of a cedar or other pine there is an innumerable array of stomata with light-absorbing cells. “By means of the complex process of photosynthesis sunlight is used by the leaf to produce carbohydrates for its growth. This explains why, in order to flourish and grow, a leaf automatically responds to light falling on it and turns toward it.”a
Whenever we read the Gospels and study the life of Christ, we are soaking up the Son. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). Even in the Old Testament, Jesus is referred to as the “Sun of Righteousness” with “healing in His rays” (Malachi 4:2, NIV).
Whenever we search out biblical truth about Christ—and we can find it in Leviticus as well as in Luke—we are turning our leaves toward the light.
If light be pleasant to our eyes, how pleasant is that light of life springing from the Sun of righteousness!
JOHN FLAVEL, SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PURITANb
a W. Phillip Keller, As a Tree Grows (Charlotte: Commission Press, 1966), 29–30.
b John Flavel, Christ Altogether Lovely, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/flavel/lovely.iii.ii.ii.html.
From the book
