The Orchardist's Graft

In the apple orchards of Yakima Valley, Washington, growers practice an ancient technique called grafting. A farmer takes a cutting from a prized Honeycrisp tree — a branch with all its potential locked inside — and binds it to the sturdy rootstock of a hardy variety already established deep in the soil.

The cut branch, on its own, would wither within days. It has no roots, no way to draw water, no anchor against the wind. But once the grower wraps it tightly to the rootstock and seals the union with wax, something remarkable happens. The cambium layers — the living tissue just beneath the bark — begin to fuse. Within weeks, sap flows from the rootstock into the grafted branch. What was severed and dying now blossoms and bears fruit it could never have produced alone.

This is the picture Proverbs 16:3 paints when it says, "Commit your works to the LORD, and your thoughts will be established." That Hebrew word for commit — galal — literally means to roll something over, to transfer the weight entirely. Like the orchardist binding a branch to the rootstock, we are invited to bind our plans, our ambitions, our daily labor to the Lord Himself.

Apart from Him, even our best efforts wither. But grafted into His purposes, rooted in His strength, our plans draw life from a source far deeper than our own. And what grows surprises even us.