Sometimes Our Roots Hold up Our Arms

I've written about roots before in reference to my father. More recently, I've written about "Roots around Rock" in reference to the importance holding to Biblical ideals in a less-than ideal world. 

Sometimes, however, roots serve a different function. Sometimes or roots literally help us bear one another's burdens. The image  of a banyan tree comes to mind. I have walked among  banyan trees in Thailand and Hawaii and they are quite unlike anything we see in Michigan.

This is my 38th consecutive year in full-time K-12 Christian education. The older I get, the more life feels like that, like a banyan tree... it gets harder to tell where our roots end and our branches begin. 

Beyond the curriculum and classroom objectives is the equally important goal of building a community of "family trees." Christian schools typically draw from many different neighborhoods, churches, and towns, so the "community" I refer to is based less on geography than common ground. Our students may not walk the same sidewalks to get to school (as my friends and I did in my childhood), but they do walk the same path and that path is illuminated by the same lamp.  Going back to the original metaphor, our family trees are rooted in the same soil. 

As our school families grow together, let us draw strength from those who serve by our side. May there be joy in knowing we are not alone, and when we do feel alone, or when we feel overwhelmed or short-handed, may we find strength in knowing our roots can  hold up our arms.

Exodus 17:11-12  ¹¹ Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. ¹² But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.