Water...
I’m not a scientist and I don’t know all the “smart words” for it, but this substance is amazing! From purely a spectators position I was blown away by the exquisiteness that is water this weekend on my trip to El Chapulin. What it can mend, refresh, purify, move, and resuscitate is mind boggling!
A pastor and his family had asked me to come on their vacation to his deceased mother’s casa; this being Holy Week, a week of spending time with family and resting. We arrived dust covered from the long road, if you want to call it a road; more like land with rocks sticking out of it that you can drive over or around. The first order of business was, of course, to get the pump running. A literal hole in the ground with a PVC pipe marking was jerry-rigged with an old school faucet head you would see on a Monopoly utilities playing card. After some kind of magic water began to pour and buckets were filled. We entered the house and began to “clean.” Now why the quotation marks you ask? The house was an adobe style 1 bed, no bath, wooden accents, outdoor kitchen with a hint of rustic charm... Translated to 80 year old, 1 room, dirt house that termites had made home sweet home in the wooden frame. It was a disaster area and I couldn’t figure out how we were going to “limpo” anything!
“Cleaning” is the operative word.
We shoveled the excess floor, packed it down and used the extra dirt, with water of course, to make mud. It wasn’t until I was elbow deep in Honduran soil until I realized we had made the house’s cement. We (yes, I too) began to spread the mud on the walls, over holes, between shelves and cracks, nooks and crannies; you name it, it got mud. They repaired a dirt stove out of more dirt! No need to call an electrician! Just slap some gooey stuff on top and smooth it out. It was a sight to see. We poured water on the kitchen counters (tree halves that had been put on wooden legs). Tan began to fade into a deep chocolate as the liquid ran over each top. Cricket the size of small mice (no, I’m not exaggerating for effect here) jumped, terrified to find new homes. I, embarrassingly enough, got caught multiple times taking in the scene around me and stood in awe at how little the house needed to take on a new life. The house transformed from shabby to Honduran chic with just a little bit of water and dirt.
That evening, after every animal in the kingdom introduced themselves to me, it began to rain... Pounding, hard, giant rain drops hit the clay roof which would make sleeping in a hammock easy. My mind began to wander away from the bats and yellow rat we were sharing our room with, to the majesty of rain. The beige and gray world I would go to sleep in would no longer exist in the morning. In its place would be multiple hues of green and lush exotic plant life, all changing because it got wet. The river, that was once dry, exploded and I could hear sounds of it running waterfalls somewhere in the distance all because water can move things. The crops in the field were drinking refreshments and coming back to life all because water resuscitates things. This whole weekend came to one giant conclusion.
We can do all of these things too, because we have the "living water" in our lives. He too can mend, refresh, purify, move, and resuscitate. Think about it...
Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. -John 7:38
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. -John 4:10
