Growing Up

I've known that plants grow toward the light ever since I helped with the gardening in my childhood days. But I learned something new last year. I planted a single tomato plant in a Topsy Turvy™ (upside down) planter. The main stem grew out of the bottom of the planter bag, away from the roots, as usual. So did that make down become "up" for that plant? No, many of the branching stems, before they became heavy with fruit, curved upward in the opposite direction from the growth of the stem. It was not because they were growing toward the light any more significantly than the stem, the whole plant being more or less equally exposed to the sun. They were affected instead by gravity, which makes the roots of plants grow "down" (toward the center of the earth) and the stems to grow "up" (away from the earth's center). Living things that are sensitive to gravity are said to be "geotropic," geo earth + trope turning. (I'll bet you didn't know that! I didn't.)

We too are meant to grow up—no, not just so we become grownups—we are to grow upwards. We must keep reaching, aiming for the highest that we know. The Apostle Paul calls that setting your "affection" on things above. "Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God." (Colossians 3:1-3) Yes, our feet do have to be on the ground, both literally and figuratively; however, the impetus of our Christian growth will be in the lessening of our attachment to what cannot last and our greater focus on the things that will.

MaryMartha
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Scripture quotation taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved.

Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com