Living Water

"...whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
John 4:14
For many years we were blessed to have a steady source of water for our garden and backyard lawn. In spring, the water was clear. It was melted snow from the mountains to the east. Our children and grandchildren would run across the flooded lawn, gasping at first because the water was so cold. Later in the season, water was pumped into our irrigation canal source from Utah Lake to the south of us. Sometimes there was a surprise presented to either the lawn or garden, a big fish. That was then, this is now. The contract for water ran its course and was no longer available. We have to use culinary water now. We chose to sell the part of our property on which our beautiful vegetable garden was grown. Weeds flourish where we once planted Swiss chard and tomatoes, potatoes and lettuce and whatever else seemed like a fun experiment. (Kohlrabi and Jerusalem artichoke to name a couple.) The fruit trees and Black Walnut died. It has been a loss, but a necessary one, I suppose. When the water canal company said the lease was up, we had two choices. We could lose the water with no compensation or we could lose the water and be paid a little for the shares we owned. The latter decision was made. There is another choice I make daily. That is whether or not I allow "living water" into the garden of my life. It has been offered to me. There is no time limit nor lease to expire. It is my choice as to how much or whether I allow the gift of the Savior’s love to enter into my heart. Even when my ground is dry, there are times when I block that flow. There are times when it seems too hard to trust. There are times when I don’t feel worthy of it. But it is always there for me, running clear and beautiful, promising joy when I let it flood into my soul.