Let your living water flow

Wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh. 

The Atacama Desert in Chile is one of the driest places on earth.   It receives an average of only 0.6 inch of rain per year.   Some places have not received any rain for more than 400 years.   In 2015, however, the desert miraculously bloomed.   On a single March day, thunderstorms brought nearly a full inch of rain.   Seeds, dried up and dormant for years, exploded in a burst of life and color.   The lifeless, dusty, and unappealing land became a place of beauty and fruitfulness.   All this because water brought life to barren salty ground.

The prophet Ezekiel uses the image of life-giving water to give us a message of hope: God can bring life to our dead places.   We all have dry areas in our life where we need God’s refreshing water, don’t we?   Perhaps it’s a broken relationship in which hurts and misunderstandings have left us lonely or drained of love.   Maybe our prayer seems dry, and it has been a long time since we have felt close to God.   Or maybe someone we love is suffering, and we feel helpless to change anything and hopeless that anything will ever change.

Whatever your desert may be, know that God wants to bring his refreshing water there.   Ezekiel saw this water flowing out from the Temple, God’s dwelling place.   But St. Paul reminds us that we are all temples of God and that the Holy Spirit already lives in us.   So sit quietly today.   Imagine yourself stepping into a refreshing waterfall, and invite the living water of the Spirit to flow over and through you.   Ask the Spirit to penetrate your dry areas and revive them.   Then wait patiently on the Lord.   Give him time, and trust in his love.   Your dry places can come to life!

word among us