God, the Gardener
I’ve been thinking about Ray Madsen and my family a lot this week. This is my daughter and Ray high in the mountains of Montana, planting their own roots of peace and love. Ray had deep roots. I post a picture every day in these messages. This one always stops me when I scroll past the hundreds of pictures and images I have. I converted this from normal color to a charcoal painting. Hope you like it.
It might be hard to see for one among you but use that to your advantage and consider the words in this post with all your heart.
…and Kati, invoke Ray and all the Joy he was in your prayers right now. I sense he has something to give you. I love you.
📜 The Word
“Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.”
— Book of Jeremiah 17:7–8
🌎 The World Behind the Word
Jeremiah spoke these words during one of Judah’s most unstable periods—political alliances were crumbling, Babylonian pressure was mounting, and the nation’s leadership repeatedly chose short-term security over covenant faithfulness. This passage contrasts two ways of living: trusting human systems versus trusting the Lord. It draws on agricultural imagery familiar to an agrarian society where drought meant death and access to water meant survival.
❓ The Meaning
The blessing Jeremiah describes is not the absence of heat or drought but resilience within it. The tree does not escape harsh seasons; it survives them because its roots reach a deeper source. Trust, in this sense, is not optimism—it is orientation. The unseen roots matter more than visible conditions.
Two key words are in use here, trust, and confidence in this passage. As usual, you might guess that the actual Hebrew meaning is more profound than our English allows for. I guess I’m going to have to get wordy to explain only two words that mean a lot.
Trust is “Batach” in Hebrew. Trusts in the lord? How about “to lie helpless upon”. It means quiet literally a physical act… knowing you will be held up.
Confidence is “Mbtach” in Hebrew. It perfectly means “a place of safety”. It is saying that God is a PLACE within YOUR environment. I couldn’t agree more. God is here with me right now as he is with you. He sustains me as I ponder these scriptures in the morning, carry them all day, then write about them late at night— read on for what that process is.
It gets crazier! Planted (“Shathul”) means TRANSPLANTED in this context. A deliberate act by a someone or something to move something else into a life-giving environment. When you have faith, God is the Gardener!
Think about roots for a minute. When the weather is bad or unseasonable what do roots do? They go deeper. If you are not in a good place right now, what does this tell you to do?? Further, the tree can’t move from its trouble, it can only dig deeper!
🌿 Covenant Contrast
Old Covenant thinking (under threat):
“If I secure the right resources, alliances, or outcomes, I will be safe.”
New Covenant living (Epistle to the Romans 12:1):
“In view of God’s mercy, I offer my whole life as living worship, trusting God as my sustaining source.”
Security shifts from what I manage to who I belong to.
🤵 Pastoral Word
Fear grows when trust is placed in fragile things. Today, practice re-rooting your confidence in God rather than outcomes you cannot control. Difficult to do sometimes? Yes, but it gets easier every time you succeed at transplanting yourself from your pain into Grace.
Transplanting yourself is a prelude to TRANSFORMATION! That’s the Kingdom! Sometimes when you have hard times you are uprooted and guess what— that forces the tree to grow deeper roots. So, rejoice, as I told my wife, in your hardship and doubt as it is making you look to God. It is providing you with the ability to gather nutrients for the future!
I wanted to tell you how I do my practice. Maybe you can take something from it.
I don’t often just go out and pick something I’m interested in and write about it. I made a program that forces a random scripture based on a set of rules I made.
My rotation for now, after weeks of refining the process, is prophets and psalms as they are the foundation of all thought thereafter— especially Jesus Christ’s theology. Never forget, he considered himself Jewish by faith and blood. I then try to weave some Pauline Theology, Jesus and parables, wisdom and hard scriptures, then narrative moments. I hope you’ll feel my rhythm to be well aligned with that as we go forward.
This program I made produces a verse that I didn’t plan for— kind of like life. I did this with intention. I do not allow myself to “pick a different one I would rather write about”— nope, again, like life. I don’t get to pick many of the events of my day— sometimes none of them.
What this is forcing is a daily practice that requires me to grow roots that help me to weather the droughts and the heat waves I could not have planned for!
So, consider de-emphasizing your Louis Hay daily or the wisdom of The Secret— both great but neither often apply to the moment we’re in now. Instead, go back to the Source where God first revealed himself in Egypt and Judea. Move forward and backward in time and through Jesus, beyond to Timothy, Saint Paul, and Agustine of Hippo. FEEL the history and transformation happen like you were there.
Life isn’t always just being positive in order to avoid trouble or have what we want, it’s about being positive in trouble.
🙏 Prayer
Lord, the Great Gardener,
I thank You that You do not leave me to wither in the parched places of my own strength. I confess that sometimes my heart is like the desert shrub—anxious, dry, and focused only on the heat of my circumstances.
Today, I ask for a spiritual transplant. Uproot me from my worries and my parched soil. Move me by Your grace to the banks of Your Living water. Help me to "send out my roots" toward You, stretching deep into Your Word and Your presence.
When the heat comes— Grant me a peace that does not fear. When the drought lingers— Keep my spirit green and my heart free from anxiety.
Transform me from the inside out, not by my own striving, but by the constant nourishment of Your Spirit. Let my life bear fruit that honors You, even in the driest seasons of my life.
Amen.
🔥 Carry this With You Today
Deep roots endure hard seasons.
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