Pink Branches and White Branches

We had two white dogwood trees that bloomed every spring in our yard. They were beautiful and their blossoms were abundant, and as a child, I didn't think it was possible for any tree to be prettier than when it was covered in white like a bride in her veil.

And then I discovered pink dogwoods one day on a hike through the woods with my class, and I was so excited. Not only did I have an example of beautiful white dogwood blossoms in my yard, but there also existed gorgeous pink-blossomed dogwood trees in this world. 

So, with this exciting revelation, you can imagine how my little mind was blown to pieces the day I discovered... get this... a pink and white dogwood tree!

I happened to be in the car with my mom when we passed one. I exploded with excitement: "Mom, look, there's a pink and white dogwood tree! Look, look, look!"

Mom did look, but she didn't get nearly as excited as I was. She smiled and said something about how pretty it was, and I couldn't understand her lack of enthrallment. Here was a tree with both beautiful colors in a single living plant! How was it possible?

I studied the tree as we drove by it. Something stood out to me: While there were pink blossoms and white blossoms all on the same tree, the colors were divided by branches. In other words, there was no branch that bloomed both pink and white blossoms. There were pink branches, and there were white branches, but no mixture of colors within the branches.

I asked why, because my mom knew everything, and she had to know about this, too. ;) 

She explained her best hypothesis: The branches were pink and white, because they were grafted together. There was no natural root ball that contained a genetic mixture of both pink and white (hence, why there was no mixture of colors on the branches themselves -- the colors were separate according to the branch). 

"What's grafting?"

That, she didn't know much about, but she gave me enough information to understand that portions or slips from one plant are pushed (or grafted) into the trunk or stem of another plant so that the nutrients in that plant could nourish the new slip. 

At that point in my life, Pixar and Toy Story did not even exist, but do you remember that one scene in Toy Story where Woody enters Sid's bedroom and he finds all the toys that Sid has "done surgery" on? Sid took parts from one toy and somehow "grafted" those parts onto another toy, so that the result was some interesting/scary looking creations -- that terrified Woody for a hot minute...

Until Woody realized: Oh. They're toys. Just like me. They look different, but we all fall under the same category of Toy.

So, in Romans 11:11-24, Paul uses the illustration of "ingrafted branches" to describe what essentially amounts to the entire history of the created world and its people. 

He begins with the Jews -- he's been discussing them almost exclusively since the beginning of Romans 9 ("As it is written, 'Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.'" - Romans 9:13), and now Paul is laying out for the Romans this puzzle, in the shape of a tree, for how Jews and Gentiles fit together.

Paul, a Jew, has been called to be an apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13) -- who, in case you were wondering, is everyone who cannot claim Jewish ancestry or inheritance. That's me. I'm a Gentile. 

So this "tree" has a root ball, tree trunk, and natural branches that represent the Jews. The "grafted in" branches are the branches that represent the outsiders, the ones not original to the plant, the newcomers. These are the Gentiles.

As I grew in my understanding of the entire story of salvation over the years, one of my big why questions I half-pointed God-ward was this: Why them? Why not everyone from the get-go? Why is it that God chose the Jewish people -- nothing against them, but just wondering -- to be His chosen people?

In all honesty, I don't know that the Holy Spirit ever fully gave me an answer, and I don't know that I really need a full answer. Who am I that the Lord should lay out His plans and actions to me, as if He were accountable to me? I am no one, except His. 

However, when I've wondered about this, the Lord has reminded me, with patience and tenderness, of Abraham and his abundant faith and obedience. He's reminded me of the Lord's covenant with Abraham that resulted from that obedience. The Lord promised to go with Abraham to the land He would show him, and to make his descendants as numerous as the stars.

Faith plus obedience is highly prized by the Lord. And He rewards these things.

The Lord also reminded me of people like Rahab, an example of a non-Jew (a Gentile) who played an important part in the history of the Jews. We find her story in Joshua 2... and in Matthew 1, where she appears again as an ancestor in the blood-lineage of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Savior.

A Gentile is given a place of honor in the Jewish ancestry, grafted in, you might say, because of her faith and her obedience.

So right there are two examples of faith and obedience: Abraham-the-Jew and Rahab-the-Gentile.

I wonder, y'all, if the Lord's high regard for faith and obedience in modern times, right here on August 16, 2021 is the same as it was in the days of Abraham, and in the days of Rahab. And Samuel, and David, and Isaiah, and Jonah, and Nehemiah, and Esther, and Daniel, and Peter, and Paul, and John, and so many other heroes of the faith?

I'm willing to bet it is. 

I'll be the first to acknowledge that I don't understand the grafting process -- in either plants, or symbolically, in the history of the Jews and the Gentiles. What I do understand is that God opened a door for all to enter through it. He opened it for the Jews, because of His great love for Abraham, and He opened it for Gentiles because of His great love for everyone else. 

The "grafting in" process is the Great Equalizer. As Paul says in Romans 10:12-13: "For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile -- the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, for 'everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.'"

Maybe the Lord isn't going to show up and establish a covenant with me and my descendants to make us as numerous as the stars in the sky today, because of how great is my faith and my obedience. Maybe He's not going to have me be a part of the physical ancestry of Jesus (considering Jesus already came as a human, and went back to the Father, and will return in the clouds on the last day, this is highly unlikely)... but I'll bet that the Lord is just as excited to see me walking in faith and obedience today as He was in ancient times. 

I want to please Him. So I'm just as excited to be faithful and to be obedient as He is when He sees me being faithful and obedient. And isn't that what the whole story is about?

That interchange of relationship, between my God and Savior... and me. I hear in the back of my head: "and the community of believers" -- yes, that's essential, as well, but here's the thing, y'all...

When I am in relationship with my Father, and when you are in relationship with your Father -- because we have the same Father -- we are a part of the same family, the same tree, and my branch... is right next to your branch. 

That's how community should be. We're not branches piled right next to each other, but we're branches attached to the life-giving stem that feeds us all.

I like to think of this as a pyramid. Jesus... is the top-center. He's the focal point. Every person who walks by faith keeps their eyes on Him and moves closer to Him. As we do, we get closer together. If we move toward another person, or another believer... we don't get any closer to Jesus, and we end up moving away from other believers. 

Jesus has to be the Center, the head of this body of Christ. It's how the whole thing works together.