Scripture describes spiritual growth with a variety of images, and one of the consistent pictures of our growth is botanical. In other words, we are like seeds, planted near the water, growing slowly over a period of time. I remember as a child in school that we would plant seeds in dirt in a milk carton, and we would eagerly look at the carton each day to see if something was growing.
The cultivation of a seed, the tending of a garden, takes time. It doesn’t happen quickly. And that is precisely why Scripture uses this image. A classic picture of this is Psalm 1:3 - “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.”
During this time of confusion and anxiety, let us cultivate the roots of our faith in the gospel, not responding out of fear and anxiety, but our of love and compassion. God is doing a work not only in our world, not only in our culture and our community, but in our individual stories as we face these challenges. Let us be like trees planted by the water, witnessing to the confidence we have in our Heavenly Father even in the face of much confusion.