Bind Us Together
Theme of the Week: Faith in Community
Monday, March 2, 2009
 1 of 1
Key Bible Verse: Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3:14). Bonus Reading: Colossians 3:14-15
My wife Carol and I took a day to hike around the John Muir Woods near San Francisco. Entering the presence of Earth's oldest living species in the redwood forest is overwhelming. Reaching 300 feet in height and with diameters up to 44 feet, these giants have lived up to 2,000 years. Everyone instinctively looks up and speaks in hushed tones.
A tour guide described the remarkable root system of the Muir redwoods. They don't grow like pines or oaks with individual root systems. Rather, their systems, while relatively shallow, are completely interconnected. The trees themselves are all outgrowths of a parent tree and grow around the parent in a complete circle, called a "cathedral." One of the keys to their survival is their ability to hold each other up with these merged roots. No known wind can topple them. Virtually no disease can kill them. They thrive in fires. They're knit together inextricably and bound together in the longest living family on record.
That will always be my image of unity. It isn't just support from a distance or a noble feeling. It's the realization that we're bound together for life and woven together through our roots that hold us all up through everything that comes.
—Fred Smith Jr. in Breakfast with Fred
My Response: One way I'm supporting or being supported by another believer is …
Adapted from Breakfast with Fred (Regal, 2007) by permission.
Copyright © 2009 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
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Lord, help me to realize that other Christians really are my brothers and to treat them as family.
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