the stream of life

August 25, 2002

i was watering the plants in my house yesterday (saturday) and i was struck by another one of those 'special moments'..... as if God was talking to me through that simple act. there are a LOT of plants in the house and so as i was watering them, i was thinking about it. some of the plants require more than others, because they are larger and thus have a bigger pot (which means there's more soil). thus, you need to put in more water into the pot in order for it to permeate all of the soil in there. and some of the plants need more doses of water than others. some can last for a week without being watered, some need to be watered every few days. and i'm sure that there are plants that need to be watered everyday.

if these plants are not given water, they will surely die. the leaves start to droop, and turn yellow, and eventually to brown. if there are flowers, then they'll fall off.

likewise, with us, it's the same deal. "if a man remains in me, and i in him, he will bear much fruit. apart from me you can do nothing" (john 15:5 [niv]) it's not to say that we will die if we don't spend each day with God and seeking Him, but isn't it like that though? how can we 'detach' ourselves from OUR source of life? what kind of arrogance is that? we HAVE to be connected to the tree of life each and every single day or else what we do will be completely useless - God makes us into beautiful people - God makes us who we are - God uses us for His purposes - if we're not connected to Him, what can we do? honestly. and so, i've kind of been slacking off on reading the travelling light and it just really struck me that i'm no different from the plants i had watered - just like plants need water to live, so i need God's Word to live. and in the same way, we ALL need God's Word to live. :)

Christians are all in different places in their walks with God - some more intimate, some less intimate. and like the plants, some require MORE to be fullfilled, while some need less - just like the plants - some need more water, more frequently, some need less, but in bigger portions. and i think the deeper we go in our walk with our Father, the more we will want of Him and the more we want of Him, the more we'll want to know of Him - so we'll need bigger portions and perhaps MORE frequently (the opposite of the big plants) :)

Posted by Leo Chan at August 25, 2002 12:17 AM