The Buried Life

The Buried Life

My granddaughter once gave me a cyclamen plant.  It had magnificent  purply-pink flowers and I loved it but inwardly I groaned because I am not a gardener and keeping this beautiful plant alive would be the greatest of challenges for me.

The beauty of the plant made me stop and think.  What I was seeing and enjoying was the result of what could not be seen down below the surface of the pot and buried in the soil.  That hidden life of the plant provided the necessary nutriments to create a healthy existence as well as influence its colour and characteristics. 

Our relationship with God is like the hidden life of the plant.  It determines who we are and how we will act and react before others.  I was talking to a friend once in a shop and a lady came up to us and said she didn’t mean to eavesdrop but she gathered from our conversation that we were Christians.  She was a Christian too, she said, and the three of us chatted then for some time.  We could have been talking about anything and a wonderful moment would have been lost.  As someone said to Peter, “Your speech betrayeth thee” (Matthew 26.73).  The hidden is revealed in the obvious.

Plants are grown for any number of reasons.  They provide shade and shelter, fruit, flowers, beauty.  They may start with a seed, a bulb, a sucker, a cutting but from regardless of the starting point, with necessary care and attention, the plant will grow.

Our spiritual life is much like the growth of a plant.  That part of us that others see develops out of union with God, our hidden life in Him.  Paul, in writing to the Colossians said ‘your life is hid with Christ in God’ (Colossians 3.3).

The buried life is one of union and communion.  Just as there is an interactive relationship between a plant and its environment so there is an interaction between our souls and our Maker.  As we abide in him so we develop in him, our lives are coloured by him and nourished by him.

The buried life is often silent and secret.  No one knows what is going on in the privacy of our own thoughts and emotions.  Our spiritual life is a very personal thing. Our relationship with God is a very personal thing.  It’s the real world where we can play games with our selves or be brutally honest and accept that our needs are deep and only God can meet those needs. 

The buried life is deep and persistent.  Just as the roots of a plant find their way around obstacles and the plant is strengthened thereby, so as we persevere and dig deeper into the things God has planned for us, we too will become stronger in our relationship with him.

The buried life is the seeking life.  Roots never stop growing, reaching out, expanding seeking the goodness in the soil around them, looking for hidden nutriments and water supplies.  Large trees grow in desert places because their roots have sunk down deeper and deeper through the soil to the hidden streams below.  The deeper the roots the sturdier the tree and the more able it is to bend and withstand the assailing storms of life.  Our roots need to go down deep into God so that we too can stand. 

The buried life is one of delicacy and strength.  Fine fragile roots cling to their environment.  Tenacity is one of the greatest qualities of life. We need the ability to hold on and keep holding on when we could be tossed and turned by the winds of life.  It is what Paul was talking about to the Colossians when he spoke of being ‘grounded’ and ‘steadfast’ in our relationship with God. (Colossians 1.23.)
 
The buried life is evident in the visible.  When the root of a plant is damaged, the leaves suffer.  If a plant is deprived of water, it is not long before the leaves start to wilt and die.  If it is growing in the wrong environment, the plant will show the effects.  The presence of some harmful chemical in the soil becomes evident through the stunted development of the plant.  A branch may die.  Its leaves may shrivel.  It may not produce fruit.  When things are not right in our relationship with God, it soon becomes evident to those around us.  We need to guard and protect those elements that make for a healthy Christian life.

The buried life is one that develops in darkness.  The prophet Isaiah said, “And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.” (Isaiah 45.3)    In the book of Job, the word ‘darkness’ is mentioned about thirty times.  In the harsh experiences of his life, he learned about these treasures of darkness.  The Psalmist tells us that God made darkness his secret place (Psalm 18.11) and that those who dwell in God’s secret place would know his protection. (Psalm 91.1)  While we may not be aware of it, some of our best fruit is developed in those dark experiences of our lives.  God is at work in us in ways that we cannot always understand and it is not until later that be begin to see the effects of those times.

The buried life is a happy life.  When the roots of a plant are fed and developing as they should be, so too the plant is happy and healthy.  Flowers grow, fruit forms and from the fruit, the cycle of life begins all over again.  When we are content in our relationship with God, it becomes evident in our outward lives.  We bloom where we are planted and the ‘fruit of the Spirit’ (Galatians 5.22) is developed in our lives, bringing blessing and joy to others.

The buried life is a happening life.  It is a life of transformation.  We don’t know what is going on under the soil but the plant is alive and growing.  Things happen, transforming and miraculous things happen, when we abide in our relationship with God.  We may not always understand and sometimes we may marvel at what he is doing but one thing is for certain, this life in him is not some static existence.  Something is always happening to bless us, goad us, challenge us but always to move us further in Him.

The buried life is one of growth and potential.  There is nothing worse than a pot bound plant.  My Dad had a little nut tree growing in a drum, waiting for the day when he would plant it in his own garden.  When the time came and he eventually owned his home, he transplanted the nut tree but it died.  It was so long in the pot that the root system was so bound it could not survive.  God does not want us to be pot bound.  Just as small plants are often moved gradually to larger pots, so God knows just how and where to plant us so that we can grow to our best potential.  If we are not happy and healthy in our relationship with him, maybe we are in the wrong pot.  Maybe we are not really where he wants us to be and maybe we need to review and reassess our lives and the commitment and activities in which we are involved.  This may even include the church we attend or the responsibilities we hold within our church family.  God wants us to happy, healthy productive Christians.

The buried life is a blooming life.  As mentioned before, we are to bloom where we are planted.  We are to be where God wants us to be.  For some that may mean a place of notability and up front ministry but for most of us it is simply being in a right relationship with God in our homes, our schools, our workplaces, with our family and friends.  Nothing spectacular, very ordinary, yet producing extra-ordinary results through our faithful commitment to the work he has called us to do.    A songwriter once wrote:

“Just where He needs me, my Lord has placed me,
Just where He needs me, there will I be,
and since He found me,
by grace He bound me
To serve Him joyfully.”

We will never know in this life the extent of the influence of our lives but just as the perfume of a flower reaches those around it, so our lives will reach out to others.

Lastly, the buried life is one of personal choice and responsibility.  I can choose to water my plants and nurture them, watching them grow and enjoying the pleasure they bring when they break forth into flower and fruit or I can simply let them die.  It is up to me.  And it is up to me, personally, to nurture my spiritual life and cultivate my relationship with God so that I can be the person he made me to be.  If I don’t accept my responsibility in this, like my plants I will simply die.

Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds…” (John 12.23.)  Paul said:  ‘As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving…’ (Colossians 2.6)

The story is told of the apple tree church and the potato church.  One produces its fruit for all to see.  The other produces its fruit underground but reality is both produce their fruit through the hidden buried life of the plant.  You might be an apple tree Christian or you might be a potato Christian.  It doesn’t matter so long as you are being what God wants you to be.  So long as your buried life is what God wants it to be. 

In the words of the songwriter, let us remind ourselves:

“While others seek a wider sphere, O keep me faithful, Lord, just here.”