The FaceBook posts that show some person, who knows far more than I, working with plants always fascinates me. I love the one where the person uses a straw to make a couple holes in a banana lying on its side and then put a seed in the hole. The banana is the birthplace of a new plant. That is about as close as I have gotten to the grafting that Paul talks about in Romans 11:17-18.
“17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the rich root of the olive tree, 18 do not vaunt yourselves over the branches. If you do vaunt yourselves, remember that it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you.”
Paul likens the addition of Gentiles into the God story that started with the children of Israel to the grafting of a wild olive tree into a cultivated olive tree. Grafting is a much more vivid process that the other word Paul uses, “adoption.” Grafting, as I understand it, comes from cutting to insert two different things together, a binding and a watering process while the plants grow together. The strength of the root plant, just like the banana, nourishes the plant added to it. Paul warns us not to be haughty because we, the young believer, come to the plant with youth and energy. But likewise we need the wisdom of the elders who have lived their faith through trials and testings. They have something to teach us.
So let’s try to think of someone who has gone before us and helped us along in our faith journey. And let’s think of someone who is younger and could use encouragement, perhaps forgiveness for a youthful error, and that helping hand that believes they are worth something. Thank God for the gift of the elder and ask to be an encouraging giver to those behind. Blessings.
On the Way to Wonder 