Preparing to Bloom

^“30 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.”

2 Kings 19:30

What does it mean to take root downward? How do we bear fruit upward? And why is it that Judah is said to do this? To answer these questions completely would take a book in and of itself, however, for today’s purposes I will try to sum it up in a couple paragraphs.

Judah was the southern kingdom of Israel after the great division of the nation. I suppose you could call this the first church split. Funny thing isn’t it. That after thousands of years human kind has not changed one bit. Judah was in possession of the holy city Jerusalem and their kings were of the line of David, yet they still did not understand God. Nonetheless, it was their remnant that was to “take root downward” and “bear fruit upward” for whatever that is worth.

To understand this whole downward upward thing it will be helpful to look at the structure of a plant, after all it does seem to be what the author is describing. When examining plants, lets say a flower, most people understand that they first have to be well planted and firmly in place before the flower will bloom. After the plant has established itself then it will receive the nutrients it needs (water and light) and will able to begin to bloom. So there you have it. The whole downward upward problem is solved. Did you miss it?

As Christians we are just like that flower. We are desperate for a place to bloom; a place where we can humble our egos and seek God through prayer; a place to dig deeper. As this humbling digging transition occurs in us we eventually tap into that stream of God, that living water that He promised the Samaritan woman at the well. And once we are tapped in we begin to soak up the light of the world, we begin to soak up Jesus. It is in this process that we are saved. In plants it is known as photosynthesis, but in man it is known as salvation. When we are saved we “bear fruit upward” as we praise God for all the blessings He has given us.

Remember Judah? That place I wrote about at first. Would you believe that in some ways we are just like Judah? Sure there is no capital holy city anymore, but the line of David still exists. It exists in us. We have that same spirit flowing through us to this very day. With that in mind I have to wonder are we properly taking root and bearing fruit, or do we believe it to be someone else’s duty.

Spoiler Alert: Judah was overtaken. I guess their root was not quite strong enough. Is ours? Will we be overtaken as well? I pray not. Today as we sit and meditate on the things of God take a minute to think of how you can dig deeper and praise more in an attempt to “take root downward” and “bear fruit upward”.