Romans 11: 16-22
Grafting is an art in the field of horticulture, where you take a good rootstock and graft on to it a branch that wouldn’t survive as well in the climate or even perform well on its own due to genetics. Graft requires a part of the rootstock to be cut and the plant being grafted on, has to be removed from its original plant and taped onto the new standard so that it will attach itself and grow. Now, there are a multitude of ways I can run with the grafting illustration, but the first one that comes to mind is the new cultivar called “Ketchup and Fries”. It’s a unique plant that the bottom of the potato (where potatoes grow -the rootstock) is grafted to a tomato top and the plant is allowed to grow as a dual crop. The unique thing about this, is that you cannot cover the graft with soil. This is unique because traditionally you plant a tomato as deep as you can – because it will root out, and you heap dirt to potato so that it will produce more potatoes. A thought struck me, that you can’t cover the graft up or the tomato will “revert” back just being a tomato. It will grow it’s own roots and deprive the potato the nutrients it needs and pretty soon after you cover that graft and allow that to happen, all you have is just the Ketchup of the plant. Isn’t that reality too, if we “cover up” our salvation? Our old sin ways take back over and we grow completely dependent of Christ, thinking we can do just as well on our own. The reality is, is that, though we may be able to do it on our own, we are depriving ourselves of a much much better life and the benefits of that life. Food for thought, if you will.
