Healing Waters

Imagine a lovely stream freely flowing with green grass and lovely willows along the bank. Other strong tall trees are dotted along the edges providing nests for wildlife and shade for passers by. Parents bring their children to play at the waters edge and they relax on blankets and enjoy the cool breeze and the soft grass. As you take in the surroundings you notice a change in the water downstream. Something has blocked up the river, creating a dam and the water is murky and is hardly flowing at all. Jagged rocks pierce the surface and the trees look dry and wilting. There are no native animals, few birds and no families having picnics on the riverside. Just upstream from the blockage the water has become turbulent. Logs are hidden just under the surface making the water unsafe for swimmers.

Sometimes circumstances in our lives cause us to hold things in, bottle things up or block things out which builds a barrier in our hearts. Because these barriers usually build up over time, it is very difficult to break them down. You find that even though you try to look happy, appear successful, love your family, please your friends or be a good Christian, the water is starting to turn murky, and you start hurting people or yourself by what lies just under the surface. Pretty soon there is hardly any water flowing at all and people dont want to come by your river any more. Its not healthy, and its certainly not nourishing to anyone else.

You dont want that big stoppage in the way, but just when God starts to break through that defence, that mask, that coping strategy, you find yourself plugging up the hole, almost as if without thinking. You try with all your might to move the boulders but you always seem to fail. You are right, it is impossible to break down that wall. But the mightiest of dams have been brought down by a single crack. If you allow that water to trickle through, if you are honest about who you are and what you are really feeling, if you allow God to that innermost part of you that was so hurt or you are scared to let anyone really see, a little crack forms in those huge boulders, and bit by bit it expands until that life giving water flows freely again. And you know what, soon the boulders start to crumble. The water starts to wash away that murkiness, and smooths the sharp stones, and removes the hurtful debri just under the surface.

The plants of peace, love, joy, of emotion and strength, of your maleness or femaleness blossom and grow. People start hanging around and even stop to take in the beautiful surroundings. Friends and family are refreshed and bring others along too. That work that you allowed God to do in you becomes a blessing for others, for them to quence their thirst and be refreshed and renewed.

Jesus said "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." John 4:13-14

You cant make it on your own. You cant fake it for long either. You can only be truly fulfilled by being connected to the Source, and you can experience the ultimate and eternal fulfilment in heaven by choosing to follow Him - Jesus.

Your job is just to be connected to the source (and stop rebuilding those walls!).

And wait till you go on a fishing expedition from THAT river!