Several weeks ago, we had days full of heavy rain. After the system passed through and the sun came out again, I went on a much-needed walk outside. I was delighted to find that the rain had created creeks and lovely little waterfalls throughout the neighborhood. The water was still flowing, creating little melodies as it bubbled over stones and through tunnels beneath the roads on its way to lower ground. The sunbeams played with the water, sparkling and dancing over the surface.
We haven’t had much rain this week. The temperature has been warm and the sun wide-open in cloudless skies. When I went out yesterday, I was a little disappointed to see that the spontaneous creeks only had mud to mark where streaming water had once flowed. So when I spotted water still standing in a wooded area, I wanted to get closer.
I hopped over the ditch and took a few steps into the woods. Once I could clearly see the situation in front of me, I took immediate steps backwards for fear of wild slithering creatures. Because this was a lower level piece of land, water had gathered in a pond-like way. But no water was flowing into it and no water was flowing out of it ~ already, it was murky and stagnant. There was no joyful humming of movement, no sunshine reflecting from its surface. Actually, there was a splash ~ but since I missed seeing what animal made the splash, I quickly ran back onto the road for fear of reptilian company.
I miss the voices of freshly filled creeks, but I am wishing away the dark standing water. It will only draw mosquitos and other unfriendly characters, and I am quite content with just the company of birds and squirrels on my afternoon excursions.
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As one footstep follows the next, I can’t shake the sight of that gloomy water.
I fear that the heart can become a murky mess, holding in what it has already been given and not opening to the presence of God ~ to His Words, to His voice, to His Spirit.
That’s not for me. That’s not for you. That is not the life abundant we have received.
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Paul says it best, as he so often does. We live and move and have our being in Him. (from Acts 17) So let it be that a stagnant and complacent soul is far from us, for we know the source of true and abundant life ~ our God is the Spring of Living Water.
Let it be plain to anyone who bears witness to our lives that our God is One that ever-flows with love and everlasting Life. Let it be plain that in Him we find our satisfaction and joy that words can’t quite explain. Let the thirsty see and let us say ~ Yes, there is more than enough. Yes, for you, too ~ for anyone who thirsts…
Jesus says,”Come.”
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I am yearning for You, God.
You are infinitely more than we can imagine, You and Your love that is deeper and wider and longer and higher than we can grasp. You are the One who makes us new, the One who makes streams in the desert. You are the Spring of Living Water.
Your goodness never runs out, Your grace is not in short supply, Your love is not to be rationed. Your Living Water never runs dry. Help us to pour out into others what You pour into us, so that there is a constant flow of Your love bringing life into us and through us…
Holy Spirit, make something new in us. Transform our well-tread ground into something unexpected, marked eternally by Your presence. Where there is hardness, soften. Where there are brambles and weeds, uproot.
Let Your light flood us so that there is no darkness in our heart for sin to slither into, but only joyful peace that reflects Your grace.
May Your perfect love cast away our fear so that we can say with open-hearted faith: change us. Change our borders. Fill us with You.
Let our lives sing new songs. Let our lives dance before You, delighting Your heart. May Your praise ever be on our lips, Your name ever lifted in glory.
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“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” ~ John 7:38
“Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth: Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” ~ Isaiah 43:19