And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. Colossians 2:6-7 NLT

Trees and plants get all their nutrition through their root systems. The roots also keep a plant or tree upright. Colossians 2:6-7 teaches us to let our roots grow down into Christ Jesus and to build our lives on him. Just like the tree, what we feed on makes us who we are.

If a tree is planted in the right kind of soil, it will grow properly and live a long life. If the soil becomes contaminated, the tree is likely to become poorly or die. When some trees become flooded because of a beaver dam they die. If a tree thrives in acid soil, but you pile lime on the ground over its roots, the tree may die. Also a mature tree may die if you raise the level of the soil over its roots.

Just as a good horticulturist will provide the right kind of soil and nutrition for the plants and trees in his care, our Heavenly Father has provided what we need to thrive under his care. God, our Creator knows us through and through. He knows what makes us tick and what will give us fulfilling lives.

God gave us the gift of his Son to show us true compassion and sacrificial love. Not only did he send Jesus for us to copy, he sent him to die for us so our sins could be forgiven. And he sent him to live inside us making it possible for us to regain fellowship with God and to receive eternal life.

There is a choice to be made. Either we agree with God that sin is sin and accept Jesus as our redeemer, or we choose to try to make it on our own without Jesus. Rejecting Jesus is the ultimate sin against God.

The decision to follow Christ Jesus is the starting point for eternal life. But this decision is more than a ticket to poke into our back pocket. If we are going to thrive in this life, we must stay rooted and grounded in Christ. He must be the focus that defines us, the focus that everything else in our lives revolves around. If Christ is truly our focus, thanksgiving should naturally spill out of us at every turn. (as in verse 7)

We choose every day what we feed on for strength. We choose between the TV, newspapers, magazines, books, the Internet, Facebook, and Twitter – or time in God’s Word and in prayer. What we take in is what will spill out when we are jostled. If we are to grow Godly lives we need Godly input on a daily basis. Christ Jesus is life itself, don’t settle for less.

Father God, help us to fine tune our focus and to fix our eyes on your Son Jesus. Help us to recognize how full and complete he truly is so that we won’t foolishly fill our lives with lesser things. Help us to be truly thankful for every blessing that is ours in Christ.