Currently, our homeschool is learning all about farms and the methods that are used in farming and ranching. We just completed a lesson on fruit orchards. One of the techniques we learned about is called grafting.
Grafting is a horticultural term where the rootstock on one plant (our example was the apple tree), is joined by the shoot of a another plant. The two sets of vascular plant tissue graft together, creating a new plant that contains elements of two separate plants.
The reason for this is to create a plant that has desirable traits, such as disease resistance, tasty fruit, a long production season, etc.
When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are also “grafted” by and with the Holy Spirit.
Grafting is initially painful to the plant, and to us. A cut needs to be made in the rootstock and a shoot needs to be cut off another. For us, sin (anything that we do that goes against God’s perfect will for us), addictions, self-centeredness, unhealthy thoughts and actions are cut, and the Holy Spirit takes its place. For me, this has been a long, painful process, and continues to be.
But, as the grafted tree heals and restores and creates a new tree, so does the Holy Spirit heal, restore, and create a new Me!
The scars of the grafts can be seen on a tree, and the scars of my past can be seen on me. But the vibrant, living Holy Spirit continues to knit together and bind my wounds, and I pray, pulse through my body, stronger every day.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!