Roots

"Singers and dancers alike say, "All my roots are in You."   Psalm 87:7  (Jewish Study Bible)

Various translations for this verse simply add multi layers of meaning and depth to the passage.
           " All my springs are in you."   NRSV
            " In Zion is the source of all our blessing."  TEV
            "All my fountains are in you."  TNIV
            "All find their home in you."   Jersualem Bible

While the writer is stressing that Zion, the city of God, Jerusalem is the center of life for all nations, I think the deeper theological insight of this passage is that God is the ground, the source, the home for all life.

When I was in seminary studying to be a pastor, I read a theologian who talked of God as the "Ground of all Being."  At the time, I thought "ground" was much too static a image for God.  Now, some 40 years later, I have a better understanding of how alive ground is.  Ground is that which anchors the roots of growing things, a source of nourishment for plant or tree roots. 

And as I consider this connection, I remember the words I spoke at our Ash Wednesday service, "Dust you are and to dust you shall return."  Just recently at a grave side I spoke the words, "This body we commit to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust."   I spoke those words in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to life initiated by the raising of Jesus.

I recognize I can choose to plant my roots in a variety of places, even places that have little or no obvious connection with the light and life of God's presence. And I do make that choice, sometimes consciously and at other times unconsciously.  So prayer, worship, study, witness and service become key practices for me to  be rooted deeper into God's presence. 

I am convinced that God has given us life so that we might plant our roots deep within his springs and fountains of life, within the good earth of divine grace and compassion.  To that end, God pursues us and plants us. So be it.