When I was looking for winter inspiration last week, I came across a poem by J. R. R. Tolkien from The Fellowship of the Ring. It’s a riddle Bilbo Baggins wrote for Frodo to help him find the real Strider. But one line in particular caught my eye.

This is the first half of the riddle:

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

If you’re like me, you might’ve read the first line as the familiar saying adapted from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice: “All that glisters is not gold.”

Tolkien flips it. The king they are looking for in LOTR isn’t “glittering” in his kingly accouterments yet. (Does that sound like someone else you know?)

But that’s not the line that arrested me. What stopped me in my tracks was this: “Deep roots are not reached by the frost.“

Trees that aren’t evergreens look dead in the winter, don’t they? They have no leaves or fruit. They are barren for many months. They might lose limbs to ice or heavy snow.

In fact, releasing their autumn leaves helps protect them from harsh, freezing conditions. If trees kept their leaves all winter, they might lose more limbs from the extra weight when iced over. Insects would eat more of their vegetation. Since water expands when frozen, cells in leaves would rupture in freezing temperatures.

Some of the trees that fall over in bad weather have shallow or damaged roots.

But if roots are firm and deep enough, trees withstand the winter. They not only survive: they sprout new leaves when spring comes. They grow. They flourish.

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

When we go through a spiritual winter, we might feel leafless and fruitless. Jesus said branches are pruned in order that they might bear more fruit. Sometimes new growth comes only when parts are cut away–not just old, diseased parts, but branches that look perfectly fine.

Jesus said a person whose heart is like rocky ground “endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away” (Matthew 13:21).

But if we’re deeply rooted in Christ, winters won’t destroy us.

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving (Colossians 2:6-7).

When we’re rooted in Him, we know His character. We can trust Him even when we don’t understand what He is doing.

When we’re rooted in Him, we’re firm in our identity. We’re His children. We’re forgiven, cleansed, sanctified, known, loved.

When we’re rooted and built up in Him, we’re established in the faith. We won’t be “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Ephesians 4:14).

We stand firmly no matter what storms are raging around us, no matter how deep the frost, no matter what losses we face. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9:

“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed;
perplexed, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not forsaken;
struck down, but not destroyed.”

May we walk as we received Him, humbly, dependent on Him and not ourselves. May we be so rooted and built up in Him that no frost can reach our roots.

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