I don’t know about some of you, but I just get to points where I feel dry. All of me is dry. I can’t drench myself in enough lotion, I can’t down enough liquid, and parts of my soul feel like parchment paper. Flaky skin, chapped lips, the landscape of my heart is that cracked earth appearance.
CC Flickr Sean Loyless
I’m always licking my lips to get some relief. So many times I think to myself, “Wow, I should really get some water.” I picture my lonely water bottle sitting haplessly where I last left it. Resting. Waiting. With every thirsty thought and lazy response, I picture my body withering like an unwanted flower. Somehow the motivation of such a tiny task is lost on me and I move on, dry mouth waiting for the next dangled moment.
CC Flickr Kevin Gessner
I start to feel dry, and it’s not just in my physical existence. If I could view my insides, they would probably be full of course sand. Think crunchy rocks on a dusty road in the middle of August. Picture that brittle golden grass that just snaps when you bend it even a little.
CC Flickr Clare Black
Like my body is crawling over mountains of sand. Like I can’t get any relief. Like I’m reaching, reaching, reaching for a gosh darn well somewhere. For that glass of ice cold water–you know the type–dripping with condensation. If I could just get my lips to it, I would feel that rush of cold liquid. I’m drooling thinking about it.
And yet
Not so coincidentally, the Lord has been juxtaposing such lush pictures to cling to in this season of dryness.
And the Lord will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail. Isaiah 58:11
I need this verse like you can’t believe. I’m walking in the scorched places. For whatever reason, that is where I am. BUT LOOK. I can be satisfied in those scorched places. Hello, ice cold water!
My bones will be strong. Those brittle golden strands of wheat that I picture, those are not my bones in this stage.
In those scorched places through which I currently walk, I will be like a watered garden. I’m like a spring of water. And despite those dry, dry, dry circumstances around me, that spring has waters that do not fail.
But that doesn’t just happen, right? Right. There is something in that verse that shows me exactly where all this lush water comes from. It reminds me of another verse.
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. John 4:13-14
I can drink water and still be dry. Sure, it would solve all of the dry skin and chapped lip issues I was lamenting earlier. But what about my cracked interior landscape? Like Jesus says, I can drink water. But my dryness, it won’t go away.
He offers something else. He offers up Himself through His death and resurrection. Jesus is the living water. Those who drink the water, they will not thirst. What else could our souls long for?
Will I feel dry sometimes? Absolutely. In fact, I’ve been walking through this personal dessert for a little over two years now. But if we look back at Isaiah, God says he will be with me in the scorched places.
If I can lean on Him, He will make my bones strong. If I can cling to him, He will make me like a watered garden. If I can look to him, He will make me like waters that do not fail, despite the environment around them.
nicky banzhaf 