Read Romans 11:13-24
I’m (Cathy Parker) taken with references in the Bible that have to do with gardening and pruning. I’ve joked that I’ve “worked out my salvation with a wheelbarrow”. So much of my experience of waiting on God has happened over decades while tending a perennial garden. It was slow formational heavy work for my heart, soul, mind and body.
Today we will look at a passage that uses gardening terminology, namely tree grafting.
Grafting is basically when two cut surfaces of different plants are intentionally bound together so that they will unite and become a new plant. The rooted plant which will receive the graft is called the “stock”. The cutting which will be applied to the stock and get nourished by the stock is called the “scion”. If the graft takes, both the stock and the scion will be transformed into a new plant with the characteristics of both.
Read through Romans 11: 17-36.
In these verses:
- Who is the root stock?
- Who is the scion?
- Who is doing this grafting procedure?
- List some reasons stated for this grafting?
Take some time to ponder about what it has meant in your life to be grafted. How to you see transformation or growth in your life that points to taking on characteristics of being secured to the root stock of God’s family?
Spend some time thanking God for grafting you into His family and for the mercy of new life. If you have questions about that, ask God to help you see.
I Peter 2: 10 “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.