When you compare a seedling to a full grown tree, the two may appear to be quite different. One may have a grand trunk, roots that spread wide beneath the earth, massive branches that provide great shade, and countless leaves or even fruit to offer. The seedling, however, might be weak, bare, flimsy, unimpressive and easy to be trampled down. Yet the seedling is by no means any less a “real” tree than the bigger one. They carry the same complete genetic coding.
We are like that seedling. We need constant nurturing, maturing and ongoing growth… The truest thing about us, however, is not in what we are still seemingly lacking. It is that we are in union with the Holy One. He has already set us apart as His own and repetitively called us righteous “saints” all throughout the New Testament (62 times, in fact).
This is the core of who we are, the very essence we’ve been given… And nothing was required for us to produce it ourselves!