“But blessed
is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in Him.
He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out roots by the stream. It
does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never
fails to bear fruit.”
(Jeremiah 17: 7-8)
I lived many years in northern California,
and never really worried about water.
Yes, we had several droughts over the years, but inevitably the rains
came. The marine air that hovered over
San Francisco Bay would move through the mountains in the early evening,
cooling down the heat in the valleys. This
lovely salt-smelling air reminded us of the large body of water nearby. The days were not so terribly hot that water
seemed essential. Oh, it is so
different living in the high mountains of a desert.
I never dwell on the “desertness” of Idaho
until July and August, when the mercury soars to over 100 degrees, and the days
are long, hot and very dry. All the
creeks are gone, and the grass is dry.
The only trees that survive in our area grow along the underground flow
of the mountain runoff. If you want to
know where the water is, look at the trees that wind down the ravines of the
mountains. Their roots go deep—there is
no flowing water on the surface—the runoff of the spring rains disappeared a while
ago. If you want water, you will dig
deep.
The well on our property is 280 feet
deep. That’s a long way down, and the water
is only present in the sandstone layers of our hillsides. The water rolls off the basalt that lies deep under
the soil, and if the water has no sandstone to reside in, good luck finding
water!
And yet, the trees know where the source
is. I have recently heard a teaching
from Ray Vander Laan about “living water” in the Bible. It’s the water that comes from God—streams,
runoff, rain. It’s not the water you
haul in a bucket…it’s the water that flows freely from the fountains of
heaven. The Festival of Sukkot was one where
the Jews prayed to God for water, and would wave palm branches that simulated
the sound of falling rain. The priest
would fill a golden pitcher in the Pool of Siloam and then return to the Temple
and pour it out and the people would cry “Save us, Lord!” for it had not rained
in Israel for six months. Without living
water, the kind that flows from the heavens, the crops and the people would
perish. It was on the last day of this
Festival that Jesus proclaimed in the Temple at the moment of silence of this
ritual that He was the Living Water!
He was from God’s own hand—He was the very
Water that refreshes our souls. He’s not
held in a container made by man, but flows from the Father. I never appreciated the need for rain and
refreshing water until I lived in place where, without the promise of autumn
rains, this place would be uninhabitable. With all the terrible wildfires that are
burning in Idaho, last night my husband said, “All we need is rain.” In fact, many years ago, farmers called rain “God-water.”
In fact, this morning, there were sprinkles on the front porch. We had a little tiny bit of rain, and I became really excited. How much more so should we be excited about the One Who opens the very floodgates of His love to refresh us!
How
we need God-Water: the Son of God who
called Himself the Living Water. The
trees know where the water is, and with deep roots, can withstand the heat and
lack of rain. As our Scripture says,
green leaves and fruit are a result of knowing where the water is.
In the life of a Christian, in the heat and
drought of this world, we need to know WHO the Water is, and send down deep
roots into Him. The drought and heat
will come, but He will sustain us.
Prayer
Dearest
Living Water: You refresh my soul! Help me to send down deep roots into You and
to drink deeply of Your life-giving waters.
Your Word is the soil that holds the very water of life. Help me to go deep. In Your Son’s name, amen.
This picture was taken by my son James. How refreshing this looks! Do we refresh those around us who are thirsty in the same way He refreshes us? You can't give a cup of cold water to someone unless yours is full.
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