What gives you life?
The other day a friend posted a picture on her instagram stories. It was an inspiring picture of a beautiful field of flowers. Her caption said, “ Be like the Flowers, Grounded Yet Beautiful!”
It touched my soul and I immediately replied to her, “And that’s why they are truly beautiful, because they are grounded in what gives them life.”
Woah, mind blowing right?! It is such a simple yet profound thought…”they are grounded in what gives them life.”
So for the past couple of days, that analogy has been on my mind. What does it take to be grounded in what gives life? Although this is meant for the flowers, it really struck me as a way to view my life.
Then today, I was reading Ephesians 3 and verses 17 and 19 jumped out at me.
The Passion Translation says, 17: “Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of his love will become the very source and root of your life.”
19: “…this extravagant love pours until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!”
The Amplified version says, 17:“so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through your faith. And may you, having been [deeply] rooted and [securely] grounded in love,”
19: “..that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself].
And immediately I saw the words rooted and grounded and I connected this to my thoughts about the flowers. The flowers are rooted and grounded and here Paul is telling us that we should be rooted and grounded. Wow, what a connection! So how do the two relate?
The beauty of the flowers can be seen only because of their roots and what surrounds their roots (what they are grounded in). Each flower has a seed in which roots sprout from. As the roots grown deeper into the ground, it gets its life from the soil that surrounds it.
Paul is showing us that in order for our beauty to shine with the fullness of God, we must be rooted and grounded. This is a reminder of the growth process. Our roots are the love of Christ. When our roots are filled with love, we are then filled with the love of God and his love for us surrounds us and allows us to grow and become the fullness of who he created us to be.
Taking it a step further, as long as the roots are connected to the soil, the flowers thrive, they live and they bloom. When we take them out of the ground and place them in water, the flowers no longer are at their fullness. The water only maintains the beauty.
We are just like the flowers, in order for our beauty to be revealed, in order for the true nature of how we were created to be revealed, we must be grounded in that which gives us life. And the one who gives us life in Our father. He is the soil, and our roots are the love of Christ.
Whenever we disconnect from the roots and remove ourselves from the soil, we no longer have the capacity to be in fullness of what we were created to be.
Yes, we are still beautiful without it. Yes, we can still give beauty without it, but that beauty soon fades. Whatever we have used to sustains us, can only do for so long.
So what is needed for us to stay grounded?
Staying connected through the Word of God. That is what gives us life. It is what grounds us. It is what grows us. When we begin to live from the Word with the knowledge that the Bible is about us rather than only for us, then will we truly be able to thrive and be in full bloom.
As a person who absolutely loves flowers, it never really occurred to me why there was such a connection. But now I see it. When flowers bloom, it is a sign of the fullness of what God created them to be. I see the beauty. I see the transformation. I see the result of what makes them as beautiful of what they are. I see their life.
So thank you to my friend for this inspiration, and I repeat her words, be like the flowers, grounded yet beautiful.