JUST DROPPING IN....

I learned a new word today: hydrophobicity. It's defined as “the physical property of a molecule that is seemingly repelled from a mass of water.” For a quickie illustration, check out plant leaves after a heavy dew, watering, or rain shower—like this photo of rose leaves. I find that when I slow down to just observe, I have the reminders of an amazing, inscrutable Creator who included such beauty for me to enjoy. Thus, I see transient diamonds right there in my front yard, quivering on a velvet bed.

Okay, if you're a scientist, you're thinking of an attribute of molecules that takes many words to explain. But I'm satisfied with just seeing beauty in the ordinary, little reminders to worship the Creator, whose handiwork has mandated centuries of awe-filled study.

Sometimes, life grinds on at such a pace that I forget to pause and just look. Reflect. Be in awe. Scripture says the heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth shows His handiwork (Psalm 19:1). I'm learning to look, listen, linger. One night the sunset cast such a brilliant orange on the horizon that I couldn't keep from sharing it. I called a close friend and said, “Quick, look out the window at the sunset,” then hung up. The color didn't last long, but she called back and thanked me for alerting her to it. To my surprise, she later gave me a photo print of that sky. She'd grabbed her camera for an “image” that lasted longer than a few minutes. I have it on my refrigerator along with coupons and photos of my grandchildren.

A much quoted thinker of the 1800s once said, “All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen.” I hesitate somewhat to use this quote—by Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose theology wandered into Eastern religions outside Christianity—but I think it says what he probably didn't intend. It's this: that the heavens and earth are so amazing, so diverse, to interconnected, so beautiful—well, the “so's” can go on and on—that failure to consider their Creator is a travesty.

It is so right that the Bible's first words are: “In the beginning God created....” Not, "God called together a committee to plan this project.” God created. And His decision after creating beauty was to create people to enjoy it.

Of course, we know the Genesis story went sour...and so here we are. But God's Big Story will come to an ending chapter of magnificent redemption. In the meantime, I savor the reminders of His perfect creation, His delightful delicacies of plant and water, His gifts right in front of me—if I just stop and look.

So what if we name it “hydrophobicity.” I call it a fingerprint of the Creator.

SATISFIED (Psalm 63)

Where I live is considered "high desert" but we're blessed by 

life-sustaining rivers. What David would have done for this!

Part of an ongoing series on the 48 psalms recommended for "down times" by counselor/pastor David Seamands (author of Healing of Damaged Emotions).

When I’m feeling down, I tend to go to certain psalms for comfort and instruction.  This is one.  In my Bible, it’s full of circles, connecting lines, and notes as I’ve thought about it, prayed through it, and feasted on it, as verse 5 suggests:

My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; 

With singing lips my mouth will praise you.

However, in returning with study aids to this psalm, I realized what I thought was “feasting” was just nibbling at the corners. I’d ignored the “plate” on which its truths were served, described in the inscription:

A psalm of David. When he was in the desert of Judah.

This time he wasn’t fleeing mad King Saul, but his own son, Absalom, usurping his father’s crown.  Now David was in the most obscure place he could find.  He’d gone from the palace to the pits—the hot, scruffy, dirty, dry desert. No wonder the psalm opens with images of thirst:

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you;

My soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you,

In a dry and dreary land where there is no water.

Both his body and soul cried out in desperation. But more than real water, he wanted spiritual refreshment.

THROUGH THE NIGHT

I find that incredible.  Here he hides—filthy, physically spent, emotionally on edge.  The night comes and the darkness disguises his whereabouts.  But instead of the enemy, he thinks about his God. Verse 6 says that while on his bed (likely little more than a heavy cloak) he thinks about God through the “watches of the night.” In Jewish culture, those were the hours of sunset to 10 p.m., then 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., and then 2 a.m. to sunrise. The implication is that whenever he woke—whatever “watch”—he used that dark, lonely time to think about God as his helper and upholder.

I “get” that.  As much as I crave a good night’s sleep, there have been many nights when I’m awakened at what would be the second or third watch. My first thoughts are of an individual who has caused me much grief.  Rather than toss and turn, I get up and go to my rocker where I keep my Bible and devotional materials.  Often a verse cited in a devotional will take me to scriptures that speak encouragement to me.  Or, God will give me a nudge to read a certain psalm or chapter of Proverbs.  Then, in the darkness, I pray for this troubled person.

This psalm also challenges me to go beyond petitioning God on behalf of this person. David also simply worships God for who He is.

Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you,

I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.

My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. (vv. 3-5)

At times I reach down for the hymnal I keep by that chair and read through some lyrics.  Singing aloud would wake my spouse, so I sing in my soul, imagining myself as singing “in the shadow of [God’s] wings” (v. 7).

The psalm ends on a harsh note of retribution against David’s enemies.  I understand that in the historical context of a royal revolt.  But my heart goes back to the first verse and its declaration, “You are my God, earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you.”  Those words help me invite into my heart the One who declared Himself to be the Living water (John 4:13-14), ready to refresh and encourage me.

Thirsty

Close to the middle of this photo are deer drinking in the river.

“I see some deer,” my husband exclaimed as he pulled our car off the canyon road. We were about 80 miles from home, enjoying the autumn colors on a lesser-traveled road. Climbing over a guard rail, we stood on a ledge hundreds of feet away from four deer drinking the chilly river water. They soon detected human presence, and bounded back up the hill into their hiding places.

The opening words to Psalm 42 came to mind: “As the deer pants for streams of waters, so my soul pants for you, O God.” I recalled explaining that psalm to a group of women years ago. One, her face chiseled by her hard life before she came to Christ, said, “I can relate to thirsting for God.”

The Hebrew word that we translate “pant” is arag and this is its only use in the Bible. It also means “to long for.” I can understand the thirst and panting that compels an animal to find water. I once had two fawns in my house (aka long-legged young teens) who became substitute paper carriers for a huge route serving more than a hundred customers. Of course, it was summer’s most blistering week and Mom had to come along as driver. I made sure we all filled our water bottles before going to the paper drop-off point, where we sat in the meager shade outside the car. Unfortunately, that was next to the locked-up swimming pool of a manufactured home community. I shot a mom’s glance that said, “Don’t even think about climbing the fence for a few cannonballs while we wait.”

After an hour, the water bottles were drained and my fawns were gasping, “I’m d-y-i-n-g” (which made me think of a cowboy song that includes a lot of yippee-yi-yoos). Finally, I decided to drive us home to refill the water bottles and call the newspaper about our tardy delivery. “Sorry, the press broke down,” the harried circulation assistant said. “I don’t know when your bundles will be delivered. You’ll just have to stay at the dropoff point.” So back we went to wait. My two fawns were about to drop out of this. Yes, the papers did eventually come and we sweated through the route in record time. Home again, they collapsed with more long drinks of water...while I had to figure out dinner. (How about ice cube soup?)

Whether a blistering summer afternoon, or a chilly autumn morning, thirst is a normal part of our creation. It’s also a symbol of our longing to be refreshed and satisfied by the One who created us. That’s why, as we drove away from watching the deer, I thought of other scriptures that speak of spiritual thirst:
“He satisfies the thirsty.” (Psalm 107:9)
“Come, all you who are thirsty.” (Isaiah 55:1)
“If a man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” (John 7:37)
“Whoever is thirsty, let him come.” (Revelation 22:17)

We hear so much today about the “WWW,” the world-wide web. It precedes the internet addresses of sites like mine. But we also need to be life-long students of the Bible’s “world-wide word webs,” discovering how even single words in this God-inspired book are interconnected in amazing ways. When we arag after God—longing for, even panting for Him--He promises to satisfy that thirst in the deepest part of who we are.