Been Watered Lately?

Two weeks shy of Easter and its 28 degrees outside with snow berms over my head.  This winter has seen record breaking snow fall in Alaska.  While the snow is beautiful and fun to play in, once the vernal equinox rolls around my eyes expect to see signs of spring.  My mind wanders back to the sights and smells of West Texas awakening from its winter slumber.  The candy red of the spider lilies, the vibrant green of budding pecan trees, and the heady smell of wisteria fill my heart with longing.  

For now, I have traded in the white Easter sandals of my youth for boots with traction.  Feeling my plight and attempting to cheer me up, my best friend brought me a bundle of tight, dry, husked blooms the other night.  The label promised me they were daffodils, so I put them in water and went to bed.  The next morning I awoke to beautiful yellow blooms trumpeting their Creator’s praise.  I was amazed to see how a night spent in water had transformed the buds.  

By night, Nicodemus came with a question and Jesus answers him with, “water and Spirit”.  In John chapter 4, Jesus tells the Samaritan women that if she drinks of the water that he gives, not only will she will never be thirsty again, but the water he gives will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.  Jesus goes on to describe the Holy Spirit as a “flowing river of living water,” in John 8.

Much like the tight, dry, daffodil blooms, our human hearts stay tightly wound and hard until we come into contact with the living water of Jesus.  The prophet Isaiah reminds God’s people that if we “loose the straps of oppression” and cry out for God we will be like a well-watered garden...beautifully blooming to our fullest potential.  Like time spent in a beautiful flower garden, time spent with us will be restorative and pleasing to the soul.   We will also provide nourishment and shelter.  Let the words of Isaiah wash over you and bring your heart joy, like they did mine.

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry,
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.    Isaiah 58:9-11

Dana Jaworski 
Anchor Point, AK