Lovin’ those hot showers!

Water heaters in our town are infamous for only lasting about five years, at least so I was told.  No wonder our showers were cooling off quickly in the mornings!  It had nothing to do with the heating element, but everything to do with the integrity of the container.

We have since had a visit from our plumber.  He knew better than to simply patch the old one.  No, a completely new outfit was needed. 

(It makes me think of an old folk song, There’s a Hole in the Bucket, Dear Liza.  Evidently, Liza didn’t fare too well getting that situation fixed on her own, either.)

Structural integrity is important for more than old water buckets and modern showers.  In the ancient times of the Old Testament, that area of the world could get pretty dry.  And they didn’t have a Lowe’s to purchase a nice hard plastic rain barrel.  Instead, the workers would carve out cisterns in the rock, and sometimes cover the inside with a type of plaster to prevent the water from leaking out.  It was this water that could help sustain them during those parched times.

So it makes sense when God uses the life-preserving cistern to make a point for His wayward children:

“For my people have done two evil things:  They have abandoned me—the fountain of living water.   And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!” (1)

That’s quite a one-two punch.  Not only had they refused real and immediate H2O, but decided to hope for some “better tasting rain water” to come along and try to collect what they could before it all leached through the home-made plaster!  (I guess they attended Dear Liza’s school of water conservation.)

All jocularity aside, this was, and IS, a tragic reality in many cases.  How often to I search for something “better” than what my Heavenly Father has for me, abandoning His presence in my current situation for an enticing present in another.  The promise goes both ways.  His water, His abiding all-sufficient provision, never runs dry, whereas anything else can suddenly and without warning…

…evaporate.

It’s also telling that, in the New Testament, Jesus refers to Himself as “the living water”, which was a statement that not only relates Him to God, but equates Him as God. (2)  This being so, it follows that my allegiance to Him, regardless of my current circumstances, is what will cause the proper outcomes in my (very temporary) earthly existence. 

How much better to rely on the integrity of our Creator and Sustainer to provide what we need when we need it.  When I bring my cup to Him, it will most assuredly, in His time, “runneth over”.  (3)

(Perhaps someone needs to tell poor Liza.)

 

• Jeremiah 2:13 Tyndale House Publishers Inc (2008-06-01). The One Year Bible NLT
• John 4:14
• Psalm 23 KJV