Hear, O Israel

The Tree

This closes the first movement of this book with the same foundation the whole passage this movement began in rests upon, the Shema, ancient Israel’s most central confession, recited daily, taught to children before almost anything else. Before any specific instruction about how to teach children, comes this: love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, soul, and might.

This ordering matters. The teaching instructions this movement opened with, diligently, woven through the whole day, only make sense growing out of this prior reality, a parent who genuinely loves the LORD with all their heart, soul, and might, not merely someone transmitting religious information they do not themselves actually hold with this kind of totality.

This closes the loop this whole first movement has traced. Root, this movement’s title, grows first in the parent, not primarily in the technique or the curriculum, but in an actual, wholehearted love for God that then, naturally, becomes the root system everything else this book will explore, branch and harvest alike, actually grows from.

As this movement closes, examine your own root honestly. Is the LORD genuinely loved with all your heart, soul, and might, or merely acknowledged, professionally, as part of a parenting strategy. Let this ancient confession be your own root today, before it becomes anything you pass on to your children.