Root Yourself Somewhere Nice

Dear Friends,

I don’t often reread books, but The Overstory by Richard Powers has become one of my all-time favorites. It changed the way I think about trees - not just as silent bystanders in the landscape, but as living, communicating beings which have been sustaining one another long before our arrival on the scene. They send airborne signals to warn each other of danger, share resources through underground root networks, and even heal one another. Science is still catching up to what The Overstory imagines: trees are connected in ways we never knew.

Jeremiah, it seems, did know. This Sunday’s Old Testament reading gives us a lesson from a tree - a tree that reaches out for water, stretching its roots to find nourishment. Jeremiah contrasts two kinds of lives: one like a dried-up shrub, barely hanging on in the desert, and another like a tree planted by water, thriving even in the heat. The difference? Where they’ve chosen to put down roots.

But here’s the thing: the thriving tree didn’t necessarily start near water. Biblical scholar William Holladay suggests that the phrase “planted by water” might actually mean “transplanted by water.” This tree had to move—or at least send its roots searching—until it found what it needed to survive.

And unlike the tree in our psalm (Psalm 1) for this Sunday, which is watered, Jeremiah’s tree expects water and actively seeks it out. It doesn’t just wait for nourishment to come—it goes looking for it. And when the heat comes, when drought takes over the land, it doesn’t shrivel up. It keeps growing, keeps bearing fruit, keeps offering life to others.

Of course, we don’t always plant ourselves in the right places. Sometimes we set down roots in dry, depleted soil, expecting it to nourish us. We look for fulfillment in things that leave us thirstier than before. Jeremiah’s tree reminds us that we don’t have to stay stuck. We can seek out what will truly restore us—whether that’s prayer, conversation with a trusted friend, time spent in nature, or simply a few moments of stillness in today’s chaotic world.

In times like ours, it’s worth asking: Where do we need to go, or what do we need to do, to soak in the goodness of God? Not just to rest from our work and our worries, but to be filled to overflowing with energy for them?

Thank you, Jeremiah, for the reminder that we can choose where to root ourselves. May we be like your tree—grounded in something deeper than the distractions and burdens of the moment, reaching for what will truly sustain us, and drawing life from the Source so that we, in turn, can bring life to others.

In Christ,

Amelie+