Where Are
Your Roots?
A desert shrub vs. a tree by the stream — what Jeremiah teaches us about where we really place our trust
Hey everyone! ✨ I'm DerDer, your friendly Bible guide — and yes, I've dragged along my sidekick BadDer again. He asks all the questions you're secretly thinking but too polite to say out loud. (He means well. Mostly.)
Today's first reading is from the Book of Jeremiah, Chapter 17. The prophet contrasts two plants: a scraggly desert shrub and a thriving tree beside a stream. The question underneath the image is very personal: Where are your roots planted? Let's dive in!
5Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD. 6He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, but stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth.
7Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD. 8He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.
9More tortuous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it? 10I, the LORD, alone probe the mind and test the heart, to reward everyone according to his ways, according to the merit of his deeds.
🕰️ What's going on behind this text?
Jeremiah didn't write this in a vacuum. He was active in the late 7th to early 6th century BC — the final years of the Kingdom of Judah. The Babylonian Empire was closing in fast, and instead of turning to God, Judah's king scrambled to form a military alliance with Egypt, trusting in human muscle over divine protection.
The phrase "seeks his strength in flesh" was a pointed political statement: placing your ultimate security in worldly power while deliberately turning away from God. This isn't about distrusting people in daily life — it's about a much deeper question: What is the bedrock underneath everything else in your life?
💬 "Cursed for trusting people?" — Isn't that a bit much?
Hold on — the very first line says you're cursed if you trust people?! I can't trust my doctor? My Uber driver? This God sounds incredibly insecure. One look at a human and — cursed. Yeah, I'm out. 🙄
BadDer, please read the whole thing before catastrophising. 😤 (Everyone else — sorry about him. He really does mean well.)
This is not about everyday trust. The prophet is talking about where you place your ultimate security — the deep-down sense of "I'll be okay no matter what." When your whole identity crumbles because your bank balance dropped, or you spiral because you didn't get enough likes online — that is what "trusting in flesh" looks like in 2025. Jeremiah is naming a subtle but dangerous shift in what we worship.
Attachment Theory tells us that humans need a "Secure Base" to navigate life's uncertainties. The insight of this passage is that if your secure base is something unstable — social approval, wealth, status — anxiety never really goes away, because those things are inherently fragile. True stability requires a foundation that doesn't shift.
🌵 Fun Fact: What exactly is a "barren bush"?
A desert bush in a salt flat? Honestly sounds kind of cool — rugged and independent. What's actually wrong with it?
Bible botany time! 🌿 The Hebrew word here is ar'ar, which scholars identify as a tamarisk shrub (Tamarix species) — found near the Dead Sea and in desert regions.
Here's what's striking: tamarisks survive by pulling huge amounts of salt from the soil and secreting it through their leaves. When those leaves drop, the surrounding ground becomes so salty that no other plant can grow nearby. The image Jeremiah chose is painfully accurate: a person rooted only in worldly schemes doesn't just wither — they become toxic to those around them, ending up completely alone, unable to even notice when good things come their way ("enjoys no change of season").
Trusts in People / Cursed
- Planted in dry, salty ground
- Can't notice when good comes
- Isolated, empty
- Toxic to those nearby
- Shallow roots — collapses in crisis
Trusts in the LORD / Blessed
- Roots reach living water
- Unafraid of heat or hardship
- Leaves stay green
- Calm in years of drought
- Keeps bearing fruit
that stretches out its roots to the stream —
it fears not the heat when it comes.
🌊 The tree by the water: resilience, not immunity
So if I trust in God my leaves are always green and I never suffer drought? Sounds like a cheat code. And why does verse 9 randomly drop "the heart is deceitful"? Who's being called out?
The tree still gets hit by heat and drought — those things still come! The difference is that deep roots mean you keep going and keep bearing fruit even when things are brutal. It's not immunity — it's resilience.
And verse 9 is Jeremiah's gut-punch of honesty: we are experts at fooling ourselves. We say "I trust God" — but the moment a real crisis hits, we're already calculating who to call, what to spend, how to fix it on our own. God sees through all of it. Verse 10 says He probes the heart and rewards accordingly — not as a threat, but as an invitation to honesty: your roots reveal everything.
📚 What do scholars and the Church say?
Scholars note that Jeremiah 17 is in deep conversation with Psalm 1, which also uses the image of "a tree planted by streams of water" for the person who meditates on God's law. This is a deliberate intertextual echo running through Hebrew wisdom literature — not a coincidence.
The Hebrew verb bāṭaḥ ("to trust") appears over 120 times in the Old Testament and carries the physical sense of leaning your full weight on something. Jeremiah is literally asking: what are you leaning your full weight on?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC §1817–1821) teaches that Christian hope is not wishful optimism — it is a fundamental orientation of the whole person toward God. This is precisely what Jeremiah's tree image describes as a kind of "spiritual ecology": what your roots draw from determines what you become.
Prayer, the sacraments, and Scripture are not boxes to check off — they are the channels that connect your roots to living water.
📱 2025 Version: What's your "human strength"?
If Jeremiah were writing today, he might ask: when anxiety hits, what's the very first thing you reach for?
Your follower count? Your savings? Your manager's approval? Your relationship status? None of those things are bad in themselves — but when they become the source of your sense of worth, you're growing in salt flats. And you may not even notice, because "the heart is more tortuous than all else."
We live in a culture that celebrates self-reliance. But this passage points toward a counterintuitive truth: real freedom comes from being rooted in something that doesn't move.
🏃 This Week's Action Steps
🔍 Check Your Roots
Take three quiet minutes and ask yourself: "When I feel anxious, is it because my security is built on what others think of me — or on how God sees me?" Sitting with that question honestly is already a form of prayer.
💧 Get Near the Water
This Lent, give yourself five minutes a day — read a short Scripture passage, or simply speak one honest sentence to God. It doesn't need to be long or formal. Just let your roots find water.
🍎 Bear Some Fruit — Don't Be a Desert Shrub
Do one small, no-strings-attached act of kindness today. Not because you're impressive — but because a tree with good roots has fruit to give away.
Which plant are you choosing to be today?
Questions or thoughts? Drop a comment — DerDer would love to hear from you.
See you tomorrow for the Gospel reading!
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