Tag: water

Stay Alert

I love my gurgling creek, and I love God’s gift of rain. But on days like this, when the rain pounds on the roof and the creek roars as it rushes past, I need to stay alert.

I live in a flood plain. The lovely creeks that meet in my backyard can become a raging river that surrounds my house. It happens about every ten years. The last flood was in 2021, so I am not due for one, but God loves to throw curve balls, so I need to stay alert.

I can’t stop the creek from flooding, but I can minimize the impact. Most everything in my garage is elevated, out of harm’s way. But during the dry spells, things accumulate on the garage floor. On a day like today, I take things to the attic, put things on tables, and move things off the floor.

The first year I lived here, thirty-plus years ago, I was unaware of what living in a flood plain meant. The seller assured us the creek hadn’t flooded in the ten years he lived here. Then my new neighbor called to let me know my kid’s cozy coupe was floating downstream, along with all the other riding toys, and my trash cans. I think that’s called a learning experience.

I have installed new garage doors since 2021, when the food waters poured through the cat door and totaled my prius parked there. These doors are supposed to be strong enough to resist the push of water and have no cat door. Hopefully, they will keep the water out of my garage even if the creek is out of its banks. Maybe I will find out today.

Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man. Luke 21:36.

I must confess I am not alert at all times. I am alert when it rains for several days in a row, or when the clouds drop massive amounts of rain in a short period of time. I become aware when situations alert me to my complacency. The hours of rain push me to move the boxes into the attic where they belong. The ponding water in the yard motivates me to move the grandkids’ toys onto the patio.

Sometimes it takes stormy weather to wake me up. Someone I haven’t quite forgiven shows up unexpectedly. My child challenges some long-held opinions. Failure makes me examine who I am trusting. Storms are like that. They make you take another look around your garage and see if you have left things on the floor. They open your eyes to things God wants you to see.

My brothers and sisters, when you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its full effect, so that you many be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4.

So, I am considering this rainy day a joy. It has forced me to pick up my garage. The rushing water has cleaned the debris from the edges of the creek. The underground reserves are full of life-giving water which will soon transform seeds into plants and bring forth blossoms. Rain is a gift from God. Perhaps all storms are. Even the destructive ones.

They wake us up. They put us on alert. They make us examine what we can do and what only God can do. They force us to address who we are trusting – ourselves or God.

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on a rock, The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. Matthew 7:24-25.

Put on your high-water rain boots and join me standing on the rock.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Melted Snow

The snow has melted and sent its stored water into the ground, into the creeks, and along its way. From the ground, the water will encourage seeds to transform into plants. It will provide moisture to the microbes and worms and creatures that live in the soil. The water that seeps into roots will travel into stems, up stalks, out branches, and into leaves and flowers and berries.

The melted snow that flows into creeks will gather into rivers from which animals can drink. Fish will thrive in these waters and animals will feast on them. As the waters gather, some will be diverted to supply our thirst, power our homes and machinery, and irrigate distant crops. Abundant water flows into the oceans that cover the earth.

Warmer temperatures will heat the collected water into the air forming clouds that winds will carry to parched areas, sharing this stored water with others.

Water is rarely stagnant, rarely stays in one form for long. Remembers those drawings from grade school about rain and evaporation? One of the wonders of water is that it is continually giving itself to the next need. Whether it is moisture for dry ground, sap for a tree, water for a deer, habitat for fish, or rain for distant plains, water is always giving.

Perhaps all of God’s gifts are like that. Perhaps everything is supposed to flow.

I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. Genesis 12:3.

What if we saw every gift sent our way as a gift meant to be shared with the next one in line? Our time, our resources, our abilities, the family and nation into which we were born, our experiences, the lessons we learn, all of everything – given to us not just for our benefit or learning, but to be shared with others; to flow from us into the larger world.

And let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ John 7:38.

I spent the last week in San Antonio, Texas. The largest mission there, Mission San Jose, was started by a monk who had spent the previous forty-three years of his life walking throughout Central America, Louisiana, and Texas sharing the gospel with whomever he found. Can you imagine? That seems an undoable task now. Imagine what is was like in the late sixteen hundreds. He referred to himself as “la misma nada,” nothing itself. Signed his letters that way.

The purpose of the missions has fallen out of favor in the anti-imperialistic, multi-cultural world of today, but this man, and many others like him, gave everything, every part of their life, to water the world with God’s love.

Sometimes, I hesitate to bring up God around people I don’t know well. Perhaps I am hoarding my blessing instead of sharing it.

God’s love, God’s passion for people, His willingness to join with us and care for us and forgive us and embrace us – this is Good News, my friend. This is an unimaginable gift. This is bigger than the most important person you can imagine calling you on the phone and inviting you to dinner. This is GOD, the creator of the universe, Lord of heaven’s armies, giver of all life, meeting with you in your den. And bringing the wine.

People need to know how much God loves them. We can let them know by passing on God’s love for us to them. We can share every gift we have with them. We can love others as God has loved us – with everything we have. We don’t have to walk for forty-three years to do it.

Perhaps the first step is to admit that we are nothing without God. God gave us everything we have, made us in our mother’s womb, and gave us breath. We are loved so that we will love others.

Let the water flow.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Treasure Stores

The snow still sits in the corner of the yard, under bushes and in the shade of buildings. Diminished snowmen grace the yards of my neighborhood. It hasn’t snowed for a week. The roads are clear and dry but secret stashes of the snow persist.

Here is the south, this is not the normal way of things. In Tennessee, snowstorms are often followed by sixty-degree days. Or the snow turns to rain before it can accumulate, and rain washes any trace of snow from the ground.

But this snow has stuck around. Even as the temperatures reach fifty, stubborn pockets of the stuff gleam white in the daylight.

I’m a big fan of water. Drinking it, looking at it, boating on it, swimming in it, spraying it on my growing garden. Snow, it seems to me, is stored water, delayed water, water saved for another day.

In my yard, it is not saved for long. I am amazed it has lasted a week. But as it melts, I wonder if the grass growing there is grateful for water on a dry day. I know that further north the snow collects for weeks, even months. On the tops of mountains great heaps of it collect.

When the time is right, these stores melt, and the precious gift of water flows into the ground, into rivers, into fields of new crops.

He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down hail like crumbs – who can stand before his cold? He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes the winds blow and the waters flow. Psalm 147:16-18.

God cares for his earth. He plans for it, protects it, organizes it so that all living things can find their path, their home, their mates. The plants get their rest and then their water. The animals get their shelter and their food. I see the beauty and the design of God’s creation and wonder how anyone could doubt His existence.

God is letting the snow collect during this quiet time. The cold drives us inside; the long nights call us to rest. We, too, can take this time to let God store treasures in us for the future as He stores water in the snow.

There is some scripture you can read today that will water your parched soul in a few months. There is a connection you can make with the Holy Spirit this morning that will bring forth life when your circumstances seem barren in the future. God is preparing us just as He prepares His earth.

The time will come when you need those resources. Just as fires rage and storms destroy, you will face droughts and strong winds. You will lose the power so readily available to you now. So, store up your treasures now. Build your reserves; fatten your spiritual soul.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:20-21.

I find myself tied in knots sometimes, doubting my choices and decisions, anxious about what tomorrow will bring, frustrated at being forced to be the decision maker. My body heat rises and my heart thumps faster. It is then the cool water from a bit of stored snow-treasure refreshes me.

Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. Matthew 6:34.

Thank you, Lord, for a cold day in which I can store up treasures from You.

Love in Christ, Betsy

The New Year

January arrives wet and cold. The ground sinks under my weight as I go out to the garden for the first time in weeks. Intrepid winter weeds dapple my brown yard with green.

Nothing is happening in my garden. It looks very much like it did after I planted the garlic in December. Only wetter. I should say that there is nothing happening that I can see. Because there is a lot happening where I can’t see it.

Underneath the cardboard, garlic cloves are fattening themselves on nutrients from the dirt and an abundance of water. Below the leafless branches of the fig and raspberry, their roots are growing thicker and stronger. They too are collecting and storing nutrients for the coming year.

Under my yard, hidden aquifers are replenishing their stores of water. Unfelt vibrations of the earth are pushing rocks and minerals to the surface. The ground is using this time of rest. The earth needs to lie fallow for periods of time, just as we do.

But I wonder if I do that, lie fallow and rest, well enough. Is just the winter enough of a sabbath for my garden? Is just an occasional “down day” enough for my spiritual life? I observe Sabbath during lent; should I do it year-round?

2 Chronicles 36:21 makes refence to the holy land making up for its lost sabbaths while the jews were in exile in Babylonia. As if God was imposing a stop in activity because his people would not take it willingly. A stop in agricultural activity and a stop in normal life. It echoes God’s promise in Leviticus.

Then the land shall enjoy its sabbath years as long as it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbath years. As long as it lies desolate, it shall have the rest it did not have on your sabbaths when you were living on it. Leviticus 26:34-35.

I am not going to make the leap that if we do not rest, God will make us rest, but there is some scientific support for the concept. Stress kills people. Inadequate sleep leads to poor decision making, unhealthy habits, and a weakened immune system. We need our rest.

The land needs its rest. Some say the pandemic was a forced sabbath for people and for the land. Almost five years later, I hope we taking regular small sabbaths, self- imposed rests for our mental and physical wellbeing. God made us and all creation to need rest.

Rest may look like nothing is happening, but we know that is not true. Rest allows us to absorb nutrients and strengthen our root system. Rest fattens the Spirit’s presence within us and prepares us for the coming year. Rest allows the rain that falls to fill our hidden reservoirs.

The rain has made my yard spongy and filled my creek. I love to see the water ripple over the rocks and swirl in the eddies. I love to think of how much life is carried in that water. Life for the dormant fish eggs lying among the rocks. Life for the resting trees lining the creek banks. Life for the growing plants who will benefit from the aquifers this creek fills.

On the last day of the festival, on the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water’” John 7:37-38.

January arrives wet and cold. What a great time to rest and refill the river of living water in our hearts.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Let it Rain.

God is watering my garden today.

A gentle rain soaks all the seeds in the ground, refills the hidden aquifers deep in the soil, encourages all the trees and bushes and flowers and grasses to grow, as well as the plants in my garden.

What an amazing gift God gives us and the earth for the sustaining of life.

We take rain so for granted; sometimes we even complain about it. Sometimes this life-giving rain can take lives as well, but we know without it there would be no life.

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Matthew 5:45.

God wants us all to live, my sugar snaps and the crabgrass that grows beside them. He sends sun and rain on them both.

He calls for us to be just as generous with our affections, to not reserve our prayers only for those with whom we agree, our friends, and our families. God loves all people and sends life-giving water to sustain us all.

I love the rain, probably because I love water. Living in a flood plain, I am aware of the problems rain can cause, and yet… these creeks which can overflow attract wildlife and create beauty. Large trees, homes for birds and raccoons and squirrels, reach through the soil to find the flowing creek beds. Frogs and minnows dart in the shallows. The gentle gurgle and lapping meet me as I leave my home.

All because God is watering my garden today. All because He loves us enough to create a world in which water falls from the sky.

In past generations he allowed all the nations to follow their own ways; yet he has not left himself without a witness in doing good – giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons and filling you with food and your hearts with joy. Acts 14:16-17.

Without water, my garden couldn’t survive. I have gone out the last few days and watered the sugar snaps, the garlic, the fig and raspberry shoots. How wonderful that God is watering them today, as well as watering the rest of my yard as well. What a joy to see everything turning green, filled with a desire to grow, to flower, to bear fruit.

Could this rain refresh me, encourage me to grow and flower?

I drink a lot of water, have ever since I was a child. It sustains me, it may keep my healthy, but it only provides for my corporal needs.

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14.

Better than a gentle soaking rain. Better than a flowing creek. A source of life unlike any other found on earth. A source of purposeful, meaningful, joy-filled, eternal life. Springing up in me.

We join with the Samaritan woman in asking “Where do you get this water?” (John 4:11)

On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” John 7:37-38.

God is watering my garden today; His word is watering my thoughts; His Spirit is watering my soul, creating life in me.

Let it rain!

Betsy