I was on a walk in my neighborhood this past weekend and saw a young boy helping with some apparent chores of the house and hosing clean what appeared to be water filters of some kind. It was obvious he had a tall order ahead of him with the filters a dingy gray color seeming to not budge loose the debris that entangled the fibers. I instantly had compassion for him and wondered if he thought about just throwing them away and asking his parents to purchase new ones.
I felt a caution in my heart and thought of how we tend to want to go the easy route in this life. We are not patient enough and even though our God is all mighty and powerful and create things just by speaking…He does not honor our requests that way…and being a parent I know full well what instant gratification brings our hearts.
As I am typing this my eyes are drawn to the many sparrows that are filling up my lawn right now. They appear to be resting in the shadows of the trees and eating the Lord’s provision. As a few come closer to my living room window I remember the last time I saw a sparrow so close was when I was a little girl. My aunt had walked me up to the park to play and on our jaunt home we came across a bird hobbling in the grass. It became apparent that the sparrow suffered a broken wing. We managed to find a box and scooped up the sparrow and I remember watching my aunt tend to that bird for weeks and what seemed like months even years before she was able to set it free. I remember being very antsy to see the bird flying and free.
The same kind of antsiness (I think I just made up a new word…hee hee) is what I am feeling in my heart right now. You see when I walked passed the young boy cleaning the filters I remembered what I read in scripture about what Jesus does with our hearts…our jars. I’ve connected in my mind that the source of my living water is in my heart…and my heart is a jar held in Jesus’s hands….in doing this I have connected two stories in scripture also, the story of Christ’s first miracle turning water into wine and also when Jesus talked to the woman at the well (John 2 and John 4). So my heart if my heart were a jar…
Jesus took the empty jars and had them filled full of water and turned them into only the best wine to be offered at the wedding celebration and then I love how the Bible tells us that the woman left her water jar when she encountered Jesus! You see I too feel like I came into this world with an empty heart that has been full of all kinds of things that easily flow when we live life alongside people who are human and sinful in nature. Sometimes my jar is full to the brim and other times my jar is rather empty due to either others sipping from my jar or by me recklessly spilling it or just by plain natural evaporation it is left empty.
Yet, all the while, Jesus is taking what my heart is and making it new. Nothing less and nothing more…just all that I am and all that is within me, He is taking and making it ONLY the BEST for preparation of the day I will partake in a HUGE wedding celebration with my God. And I too like the woman at the well, since coming to meet my Jesus have left my heart at His feet. Entrusting my heart to Him and Him alone because He is so trustworthy!
It is all so freeing…just as my aunt eventually freed that sparrow…my heart is free! So, when I see things in this life that may discourage me or remind me of our nature or evil in this world…like the filters which were being made clean by the boys’ hands, they ended up in my neighbor’s trash by afternoon after all…it is okay because God is trustworthy!
We too, like the woman at the well can be free and ever so encouraged to say…”Come see…” For my heart is held by Christ’s hands…It’s weird, I’m afraid I can’t explain it without seeming freaky in some way; but I almost feel Him physically reaching in and taking a hold of my delicate tender heart. Oh there is such beauty here and I remember my husband’s grandmother confirming me of my beauty…the best kind of inner beauty…she expressed noticing a restful quiet Spirit settling in my heart and when we are held the deepest questions of our heart are answered! (What a blessing, I cherish the words of a woman who bore no natural birth of my own family line…yet loved me with the love she received from God). I also treasure the truth in what Stasi and John Eldridge communicated in their book “Captivating.”
“Yes, Our God has been and will continue to pursue you. Our God finds you lovely. Jesus has moved heaven and earth to win you for Himself. He will not rest until are completely his. The King is enthralled by your beauty. He finds you captivating.”
My prayer is that in reading this some hearts in addition to mine have come alive!!! All the glory to you my mighty King!!!
I felt a caution in my heart and thought of how we tend to want to go the easy route in this life. We are not patient enough and even though our God is all mighty and powerful and create things just by speaking…He does not honor our requests that way…and being a parent I know full well what instant gratification brings our hearts.
As I am typing this my eyes are drawn to the many sparrows that are filling up my lawn right now. They appear to be resting in the shadows of the trees and eating the Lord’s provision. As a few come closer to my living room window I remember the last time I saw a sparrow so close was when I was a little girl. My aunt had walked me up to the park to play and on our jaunt home we came across a bird hobbling in the grass. It became apparent that the sparrow suffered a broken wing. We managed to find a box and scooped up the sparrow and I remember watching my aunt tend to that bird for weeks and what seemed like months even years before she was able to set it free. I remember being very antsy to see the bird flying and free.
The same kind of antsiness (I think I just made up a new word…hee hee) is what I am feeling in my heart right now. You see when I walked passed the young boy cleaning the filters I remembered what I read in scripture about what Jesus does with our hearts…our jars. I’ve connected in my mind that the source of my living water is in my heart…and my heart is a jar held in Jesus’s hands….in doing this I have connected two stories in scripture also, the story of Christ’s first miracle turning water into wine and also when Jesus talked to the woman at the well (John 2 and John 4). So my heart if my heart were a jar…
Jesus took the empty jars and had them filled full of water and turned them into only the best wine to be offered at the wedding celebration and then I love how the Bible tells us that the woman left her water jar when she encountered Jesus! You see I too feel like I came into this world with an empty heart that has been full of all kinds of things that easily flow when we live life alongside people who are human and sinful in nature. Sometimes my jar is full to the brim and other times my jar is rather empty due to either others sipping from my jar or by me recklessly spilling it or just by plain natural evaporation it is left empty.
Yet, all the while, Jesus is taking what my heart is and making it new. Nothing less and nothing more…just all that I am and all that is within me, He is taking and making it ONLY the BEST for preparation of the day I will partake in a HUGE wedding celebration with my God. And I too like the woman at the well, since coming to meet my Jesus have left my heart at His feet. Entrusting my heart to Him and Him alone because He is so trustworthy!
It is all so freeing…just as my aunt eventually freed that sparrow…my heart is free! So, when I see things in this life that may discourage me or remind me of our nature or evil in this world…like the filters which were being made clean by the boys’ hands, they ended up in my neighbor’s trash by afternoon after all…it is okay because God is trustworthy!
We too, like the woman at the well can be free and ever so encouraged to say…”Come see…” For my heart is held by Christ’s hands…It’s weird, I’m afraid I can’t explain it without seeming freaky in some way; but I almost feel Him physically reaching in and taking a hold of my delicate tender heart. Oh there is such beauty here and I remember my husband’s grandmother confirming me of my beauty…the best kind of inner beauty…she expressed noticing a restful quiet Spirit settling in my heart and when we are held the deepest questions of our heart are answered! (What a blessing, I cherish the words of a woman who bore no natural birth of my own family line…yet loved me with the love she received from God). I also treasure the truth in what Stasi and John Eldridge communicated in their book “Captivating.”
“Yes, Our God has been and will continue to pursue you. Our God finds you lovely. Jesus has moved heaven and earth to win you for Himself. He will not rest until are completely his. The King is enthralled by your beauty. He finds you captivating.”
My prayer is that in reading this some hearts in addition to mine have come alive!!! All the glory to you my mighty King!!!
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