In a rootless world, we long for a place where we find peace, rest, and belonging. The soil of our society is not particularly well-suited for growing deep roots of character and Christian identity. The consistent pattern of uprooting our lives and families for a new job, a new opportunity, a new church has left our roots damaged, our friendships weak, and our souls drained. We long for a place where we are known, loved, and even challenged to live more fully.
The longing for home, for place, for rootedness is ultimately a longing for Jesus. Wrestling with the biblical themes of land and exile, Rooted: Growing in Christ in a Rootless Age is a call to grow more at home in our true home, Jesus Christ. Walking along with Israel from Eden through the Exodus to the Exile, Stephen C. Shaffer shows how God both rooted and uprooted his people so that they would find their identity and center in God.
Rooted connects well know biblical stories to our own stories, these biblical characters struggled with some (or most) of our own struggles. How to live in a land and among a people who are not rooted in the same values we cherish. This is a good book to read by yourself but would also work well to read and discuss with others. The books fit well in our current age, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it ages well. It has a certain timelessness to fit in any age