Last October, Micah and I took to the trail in search of father-son time and some cool pictures. We got both in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. One of our favorite spots was Chapel Rock—a place where you find a tree that seems to laugh in the face of wind and erosion.
This white pine sits atop a rock formation that is freestanding from the rest of the shoreline. The tree has these roots that shoot out across the free air and find their home in the soil on the mainland. It’s nuts! Just take a look for yourself...
Apparently there used to be an archway supporting these roots. It collapsed in the 1940s, leaving this 250-year-old tree to survive on the strength of its roots or fall into Lake Superior.
It’s a modern-day picture of what the Apostle Paul wrote about in the letter to the church in Ephesus...
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
(Ephesians 3:16-19)
Paul’s prayer for his church family is that they would be rooted and established. POWERFUL. This power comes from the love of Jesus Christ.
This passage pushes us to be powerful at a deeper level than intellectual agreement with who Christ is. It challenges us to have knowledge and faith—yes. And then to push deeper into Christ—into the place where we have learned about Him, believed in Him, and now share a relationship of love with Him.
Dear church, grasp His love with your mind. Encounter His love with your heart. And serve Him with all your strength.
There are forces in this world that would see you blown into the lake, forces that would erode the ground beneath you. But you have the power to stand the test of time. You have the opportunity to send your roots deep into a relationship with Jesus—to grab hold of his deep, rich love for you. That’s a picture worth taking!