It's Going to Take More Water

Life in the desert is hot, hot and hotter.  Water is precious.  Shade is valuable.  In fact, it can be the cause of parking lot battles.   Some kid could make a great part-time income charging for shaded parking spots in the summer.  I would pay.

I was raised here, and have conservation in my DNA.  In fact, no water is wasted.  Ice is poured into dog water bowls and pasta water is cooled and given to the thirsty plants in my yard. 

Last summer was hot earlier than normal. As the temperature climbed, our plants wilted. My roses are particularly sensitive to heat.  The buds try and open, but are fried to a crisp within hours.  During the summer, most plants just maintain. 

Each morning that summer, I sat at my kitchen table, looked at my crispy rose bushes and dreamed of England.  Or Portland, Oregon.  Seattle, Washington.  Or anywhere roses thrive in the summer.  Not that I would trade my home for a flowing rose bush in June, but it was a nice daydream. 

Then one morning, sitting at that same kitchen table, looking at that same rose bush, I noticed some new growth.  Green new growth.  It was startling fresh in relation to the rest of the struggling bush. 

A quick comment to my husband revealed the reason.  He had increased the watering just that week.

As I thought about that rose bush, the Lord spoke an interesting truth to my heart.

"It's going to take more water to grow in the heat."

Aaahhh ... I thought about the heat of my life.  Sometimes the fire gets turned up under me.  Circumstances are more difficult.  Emotions more painful.  Relationships stressed.  I'm surprised by challenges I didn't see coming. 

During those times, I maintain.  It's all I can to do hang on.  There's not a lot of new growth.  Wilting.  Frying.  Dying.  But not new. 

I'm going to need more water during those hot times.  You see, my regular watering routines aren't enough when the heat gets turned up.  Sometimes, I just need more.  Living water.  Like what Jesus offered the woman at the well one hot, dusty day.

The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?" Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."  John 4:9-15 (NIV)

My truth for today:  When life is hot, I need more water.  Jesus' living water.

Time for a big, thirsty drink. 

In His Love,

Glynnis