Keep your spade handy

I AM SO SPOILED!  (Whew.  There.  I said it.) 

 May I please explain…?  

As I recall the situation, the laundry was on in the basement, but I kept hearing the sound of running water rather than the typical whirring of the washer.  You know how something in the back of your mind finds its way to your decision-making part of the brain?  My frontal lobe was telling me I should probably investigate.  Good thing, too, since upon inspection it appeared to be raining from the basement rafters!

One of the washer hoses had busted and was creating this interesting, albeit expensive, illusion because it’s high powered jet spray was aimed right at the basement ceiling.  It was one of the few times I’ve been thankful that my “basement” is more of an old-time cellar, so the unexpected hydration was no problem; however, that may have been one of the circumstances (and there have been a few) where the water in the whole house had to be turned off, due to the corrosion at the hose connections.

UGH!!  No water!!  No bathrooms, no sinks, no washing dishes…and on, and on.  I love camping, just not in my own house…oh, the things I take for granted.

The “no-water” problem was just part of the daily desert routine in the life and times of Abraham’s son, Isaac.  So precious and scarce was this necessity, it was the stuff of feuds.  Dig a well (and I can only imagine how difficult THAT was, in a desert no less), and here comes someone stronger and stingier to lay claim to all your hard work. Isaac had his fill of that kind of neighborliness—

“[Isaac] set up his camp at that place, and his servants dug ANOTHER well.”

Wherever Isaac went, he just kept digging wells.  He knew water was necessary for survival, not only for him, but for all those depending on him.  The thing to note here is that God always provided the water wherever Isaac went.  Of course, Isaac had to dig for it, but it was always there.  Always.

Pretty obvious life lesson.  We may feel like we’re in a spiritual desert, and many times that’s a fairly accurate assessment of life.  And/or we may feel like we’ve invested some serious sweat equity in ___________, and our place gets usurped by a “foreigner” (newcomer, or even a formerly trusted friend) where moving back out into the unknown desert is the only option available to us. 

God will never move us somewhere to die of thirst.  On the contrary, we are called blessed when that thirst leads us to make another well, and make it deep.

^“…Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, ‘Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”

Feeling hot and dusty in your desert of life?  Start digging, because most assuredly, our good, good Father does not leave us without His life-giving water. 

 

John 7: 37, 38 and Genesis 26:25  Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.