yet another botanical metaphor

while reading a smithsonian magazine, i came across a bit of nature trivia that really struck me. this piece reported an odd function of the easter lily, of all things, revealing that:

"cornell university researchers have found that the bulb develops one set of roots for taking nourishment from the soil and another set for...digging. if the bulb is planted too shallowly, those roots contract, pulling the bulb farther into the ground until it hits optimum depth. the researchers say two things about this 'contractile root' business: one, it is stimulated by light, and two, they'll be darned if they can say exactly how it works."

i couldn't help but draw on the similarities and familiarity of the activity of the plant and the body of christ. as we've engaged in missional ways over the last ten years, we've found that there is a continual exchange of both drawing nourishment from the work of God's spirit and the comfort of one another, and, with an almost irresistable apostolic urge of movement, digging, reaching, and planting ourselves in the world around us. the easter lily bulb gives us a signpost within creation of both harmony and design of this unfied, diversified economy at work.