Thirst...

A picture in my mind….

I am looking out of the window and I see a dry, dusty land – Africa in the Dry Season.  The few green plants are all covered with a greyish paleness.  All the trees have lost their leaves.  It is the dry season and there are still a few months to go before the rains comes.  Dry and dusty. 

River beds only have a suggestion left of where the water once flowed.  The wind picks up the dust and blows it over everything.  The dead leaves aimlessly follow the wind.

And there I am with my little plastic orange spade, digging for water.  I bend down, lick the ground – nothing!  I dig a bit deeper - find a drop and very carefully scoop it up with a teaspoon and place it gingerly in the cracked teacup…where it all leaks promptly out into the thirsty soil!  I frantically lick again at the cup’s chipped edge – nothing!  I try again, dig, dig, dig.  My plastic spade hits a rock, not even big, and disintegrates into handle and a few orange splinters.  I look at my teacup and see a drop of liquid.  I tilt the cup as far as I can without losing sight of the drop and try and aim for my parched mouth.  A single drop, tainted by dust and dirt and it sticks in my throat.  Not quenching the unbearable thirst, only adding to it…..

Meanwhile in the background there is this rushing sound.  Kind of wild and full of Life.  I turn my stiff neck at last towards the sound.  It is Water!  But not just Water – it is a gushing, rushing, wild current River!  Right there next to my little hole and empty cracked teacup!  The wind that blows over it smells sweet – like things are about to change, smells of Life and Green!  I stand up and stumble over.  I fall on my knees and stick my whole head into this wonderful rushing stream and I am drinking, washing and laughing all at the same time! 

“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken Me, the Spring of Living Water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” Jeremiah 2:13

In real life, how do I get to this water?  Practically, I mean?  Here I am, totally given out.  Totally used up and at the end of my rope with still a few kilometers of cliff to go down!  What do I do to get to this Spring?

There are no 5 Easy Steps to this plus, I hate books that say The 3 easy steps to (fill in the blank)!!   

But for me, for today the 1^st step is that I have to come to God and say “I am thirsty!!!  Help me!”       I have to admit and say “Here is my little plastic spade, here is my cracked teacup.  I lay them down.  I open my mouth and I trust You, the Living Spring to fill me up.  Without it I am a gonner.  I need You.  I cannot do it myself.  I come to you in dependence and hope.  Quench my thirst, fill me, and cleanse me.  Give me new hope for every day.  Let me lie down in green pastures, by quiet waters.  Restore my soul.”

Bella

“The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.  You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” 

Isaiah  58:11