The chill of the night gives way to the increasingly radiant days. As the sun rises higher in the sky, the days grow longer.  Quickly, the snow from the mountains to the valleys begins to rapidly melt – refreshing life for every living thing. Before you know it, life emerges. In the blink of an eye, the grey gives way to a great range of colors. It’s almost as if your vision has changed from black and white to every color imaginable, and there is depth. Every field, creek, and hillside is teaming with life. You pause, look around, and take a breath. This isn’t just life sustained. It's thriving. There’s abundance, overflow.

‍

Today’s passage brings me images of springtime in Alaska – a time when life abounds. This is not just life that is managing to survive. It is growing, producing, and spreading. Although year after year all of this life encounters wind, fire, a few feet of snow, earthquakes, and so much more, we consistently see it thriving again and again.  

‍

In this series we have been in, The Life You Want, we’ve been talking about living a life that can only be found in the Lord. The source of life is Jesus. When Jesus brings us out of the darkness and into the light, he brings us to life. Yet that is only the beginning. He is the One who waters us, the One who brings us not just to a life that survives but one that thrives. It’s a life of abundance that produces fruit, that multiplies, and that accomplishes all that he wants it to. This life isn't all about us though. The Lord, through the overflowing of his Spirit in us, wants to work in the lives of all those around us. You see, it starts with our personal relationship with him, but it goes so much further.

‍

I’ll confess that there was a time when I was inwardly focused, thinking that the life I truly wanted and needed was all about me. I experienced some key changes in my life when I joined a group and started serving. Soon, the context of things didn't matter so much, because I saw that God wanted to work in and through every facet of my life.

What do you need to see God watering today? Maybe it's taking a step in trusting that he is the only One that can give you the life that you were created for. The great news is that you don't have to have everything figured out or have all the answers. Maybe you are realizing today that the life you yearn for is not an inwardly focused one. That God, who first did a work in you, wants to work through you, as well. Is he calling you to let the overflow that he has poured out onto you be shared with others? Let him water you. Let him grow you. Allow him to work through you. To produce fruit in your life. To reach your friends, neighbors, family, community, and to the ends of the earth.