“He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom” (Jer 10:12).
Let’s pause a little longer to think about water. “Who has divided a channel for the overflowing water…to cause it to rain on a land where there is no one, a wilderness in which there is no man; to satisfy the desolate waste, and cause to spring forth the growth of tender grass? Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew?” (Job 38:25-28). Where there is no gardener to tend the flowers, no farmer to care for the crops, who looks after it all? I do, says the Lord. And He is the ultimate at recycling, too. The water that gushed from Eden, watered the fields of Boaz, or bore the disciples’ Galilean boat, is the same that waters your garden and replenishes your body. The ultraviolet part of sunlight can kill pathogens in water. And I know it sounds counterintuitive, but dirt cleans water, too! As the water percolates through layers of soil, sand, and rock, they hold onto pollutants—living organisms, harmful chemicals and minerals—only letting the clean water through. This is such a beautiful truth when applied to the spiritual water of the Word. The same promises that fortified Abraham in his long wait for a son, or heartened Caleb in his 40-years of wilderness trek for other people’s failures, the same truths that thrilled Peter and John and Paul, that fortified the early Church through its persecutions—these are the same promises and precepts that refresh and sustain us today. Likewise, the “rivers of living water” (Jn 7:38-39), illustrating the Spirit’s enlivening and empowering ministry, flow through the life of every woman and man of God in history. Christian, the Spirit that emboldened the martyrs, comforted the tortured, and inflamed the evangelists is the same One who dwells in you today!