Water of Life

by Linda Hagen

I know a truth. You probably know it as well. God is always with us. He is there when we don't or can't see, when there is loss and lack. When we can't reconcile the circumstance, He is still with us.

Around the time that our son died, during our great grief, this region of the country experienced what was deemed an exceptional drought. The worst kind. The great storehouses of water that God has collected below the Earth's surface seemed to be slowly failing.  We couldn't actually  see there below, but we lived with the consequence. Fear, doubt, suffering, searching. A creeping desperation slowly drying up hope and faith, and all the while wondering, " Where is the good in this?"

Because water is essential for life here on Earth, humans notice immediately when there is not enough. We suffer, we fear for our lives. Oh, that we would regard the "Living Water",  Christ himself, with the same desperate need.

We often take both waters for granted until there is a drought of circumstance or soul.

Here in Hagens Holler, our water comes from a spring down the hill below our house. Water comes from the great storehouses below that we cannot see and then "springs up" to the surface. We did not have to dig or drill. It has just been provided for the taking, like a gift. Life itself.  Living water.

For as long as anyone around here could remember, a little stream of clean, pure spring water flowed out of a cavelike hole in the side of the mountain. At the opening of the cave, a small pool lined with rocks, like a sink , had formed.

We placed the end of  a waterline into the little  pool and the water flowed through the line into a 700 gallon tank. A  pump placed in the tank pumped the water uphill through another line into our home. Not until you could actually see the water all collected in the tank,  could you really appreciate the enormous volume of water that was provided, year after year. It only had to be collected in the one vessel in order for us to use it. In fact, the spring would fill the collection tank to overflowing. We placed a short overflow pipe into the tank wall on the other end, near the top. When the tank was full to overflowing, the water would shoot out of the overflow pipe onto the ground and on down the hill. We could not actually see the water flowing through the line into the tank,  so in order to check that the water was flowing properly into the tank, we only had to look to see that it was flowing out of the overflow pipe on the other end. Water out means water in.

Then came the grief of an exceptional drought. The worst kind.

The small stream flowing from the cave gradually slowed. The collection tank often was only half full. No overflow. Our closest neighbor on down the mountain ran out of water when his own spring completely dried up. The creek that runs through our property dried up. How could it be that the great storehouses of water below are failing?  Fear and doubt increased as the water decreased. We ourselves were drying up,  just waiting for the rain.

Just as we got to the desperation point of rationing water on a daily basis and buying drinking water from the store, my husband came into the house and said. "I have discovered a new spring. It doesn't look like much, just a muddy hole about 100 feet from the old spring, but when I dug it out with the shovel, water came right out of the ground."

We dug it out some more, forming a new little sink and lined it with rocks. We went to look at it every day, and every day the little sink was full of the life giving water springing up right out of the ground. (This water ignored the fact that there was no rain and that this was an exceptional drought. A  demonstration of true and humbling  power.)

So we took the end of the water line out of the old spring and moved it to the new spring. The water flowed through the line into the collection tank. Truly a miracle. Once again the tank was filled to overflowing, shooting  out of the overflow pipe on the other end. We attached another waterline onto the overflow pipe and connected it all the way down the hill into our neighbors collection tank, providing him with essential water that gives life. The new way to check and see if water was properly flowing into our tank was to look at the overflow pipe on our neighbors tank. If the water of life was flowing out of our neighbors tank, it told us that life was flowing in to our tank. Water out means water in.  Do you see it?

Eventually, the drought ended, but the old spring never came back. To this day, the new, little spring provides all our water and plenty for the neighbor. Without fail.

When we are suffering and can't see the sense of a thing and certainly not the good, God is there. In the drought, he is there. I always wonder if that little, muddy spring just came up from the earth right then, or had it always been there, unnoticed,  until our time of desperate need?

Over time, the eternal Living Water continues to heal our souls, and everyday we are reminded joyfully of His ever faithful Presence- just by turning on the faucet.