When Your Roots Are Planted Deep

I was planted in the same area for 24 years of my life before I met my man and he swept me away. I pulled up my roots and packed my things.....I remember turning back and seeing my Mama at the door, waving with tears streaming like small rivers down her soft cheeks. I remember the pulling and the tearing of my roots. How it hurt to watch home stay in the distance and me, I was in the passenger seat looking back, crying my Mama's tears.

So when words were being softly spoken back and forth about up rooting. I was anxious, scared and homesick for them. This is their home......my home. It's what I know, it's where they are. It's where I keep them in my heart. To up root them would be to up root me all over again, but for good this time.

And although I want to be near them, to be close to them, I want what's best for them. I want what God wants for them. And as the talk would go back and forth about how nice it would be to be together again, for them to be with their grandchildren, there was always still this ache. The ache I felt 17 years ago when I felt my roots TEARING OUT OF THE GROUND.

I know each tree on this property. I've walked this way hundreds of times taking snap shots to take home with me.......My how these trees have grown in just a few years. Roots all deep, reaching into the earth.

My memories here are planted in rich soil and they reach deep into my heart. I didn't know it at the time, but my Mama and Daddy were feeling the same way. I got a phone call today. Daddy said "I just wanted to let you know I think your Mama and I better stay planted here for a while until we figure things out." And I have to admit that I felt my roots sinking back into that rich dirt  again. No more pulling and tearing.....Just letting them grow.

I don't have all the answers but what I do know is when life is bigger than you, you must wait on the Lord. And to be honest I don't mind waiting on the Lord this time around......

 And sometimes what we want is not what is best for us right now........but it could be down the road. I pray that as He speaks to them His voice will be crystal clear. No tearing up roots, when they are not ready to be replanted.

Now don't get me wrong I was ready to pull up my roots and make a life with my man......but I'm not so sure I am ready for them to tear up roots, to leave this place that they have worked so hard to make a home. I don't know how I could come home if home is not there to come home to...

And my Daddy, he says he's not ready to retire and move south....not ready to dig up roots planted deep..... And Mama, she wants to do what's best for him....."I just need to slow down some."  he tells her.

I would take walks often where the old pine stands strong and firm. Down where we all call it "the lower lot"....One time as I was passing by I glanced up and there on one of it's low branches, a little family of baby owls all fluffed up for the evening. Waiting on Mama to bring them dinner. And I swear you can't capture this stuff just any where. Nature all wrapped up in moments on a tree rooted deep.

This old pine, she has seen many a winter and I hope to go stroll by her again real soon...Because this is home to me...to them.....Always in my heart of hearts this will always be HOME where my roots grew strong enough to eventually be replanted.
And come what may....your roots there, mine here..... You and I, we share the Son and He lives in our hearts And someday we will all share a place in heaven called HOME. And there will be no more tearing up roots because they will be planted deep in the soil of forever love. Where it will always feel like home.