And recently, I was reminded of what is possibly one of my favourite parts of Jeremiah. (I was reminded of this while I was in Home Sense for the VERY FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE, and i kept seeing all of these pretty paintings, and it made me feel so sad, because I cannot paint. However, if i COULD paint, I would totally paint a picture of these verses. It would be the very first thing that I painted.)
Okay, Jeremiah 2:11-13:
"Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror," declares the Lord. "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water."
The Israelites had God.
They did.
God, the spring of living water, provided an oasis for them. An escape from the dry, hot, empty desert and the inevitable aimless wandering that He knew they would do if they were in the desert.
And I imagine that for awhile, they were content in that oasis.
But then someone- possibly some young, curious person who didn't remember what life was like before the oasis, looked out at the desert and saw all that space.
The sky and the sand and the hills and the sun.
We're going to call this person Me. Because in so many ways, it is me. And maybe you too.
From the edge of the Oasis, the desert didn't look that bad to Me.
Me probably wondered what was on the other side of the hills.
And for awhile, Me squelched the desire to find out what was outside of the oasis. What life was like in the desert.
But as time went by, Me found that the oasis felt more and more limiting, and the boundaries became more and more confining. The desert seemed so big. So full of possibilities.
And so Me gave in. Packed some bags, maybe took some friends, and left the spring of living water that had provided everything they had needed.
Me chose to leave. Chose to exchange the security of the oasis for the openness of the desert.
But it didn't take long for Me to find out that life outside of the oasis was not everything that she had hoped it would be.
It was hot and dirty, and when the wind blew, sand swirled around. Me spent every single day wandering aimlessly, headed for no particular place. No definite goal in mind. For all she knew, she was going in circles.
Most of all, it was dry.
And there was no escape.
But she wandered and wandered.
At this point, you would think that she would realize that it was impossible for her to survive on her own and return the Oasis.
But no. Me decided to take matters into her own hands.
She would dig a well. She could be self-sufficient.
She tried her best.
But she simply could not do it. The sand kept sliding back into the tiny hole, and there was no way that she, weakened from lack of water, could ever possibly reach water.
Lol I just realized that I don't know what happens next in this story! I really should have thought this through.
Maybe Me dies there, beside the slight dent that she has made in the sand.
Or maybe someone from the oasis searches for Me and finds her curled up and hopeless, just in time and carries her back to the living water and she lives and gains a full understanding of how necessary living water is to survival.
I guess that either could work.
But my point is this:
Me was so stupid!
She thought that she could survive on her own!
The oasis was right there! She could have turned and gone back to it at any point. (Unless of course, she was lost. lol, we're going to ignore that possibility, okay? I am not good at illustrations.)
In my head, I have this picture of Me.
She is on her knees, furiously digging in the sand with her hands, trying to reach water. Using so much energy even though she must know in her heart that what she is trying to do is impossible. And I also see the oasis. It is beautiful and green and cool and the ultimate contrast to the desert. It is within Me's eyesight.
And if Me would just stop digging, stand up, and turn around, she would see it. She could run to it if she chose too.
The oasis is right there. Easily within walking distance.
But Me is so busy trying to survive on her own that she doesn't see it.
It seems like I spend so much time trying to dig my own wells. And i panic and freak out and feel like life is unbearably complicated.
When all the while, God is right there. Right there. So close, that I could reach out and touch Him and experience His peace. I just have to choose to.
So many times, I just run to God when I get really, really thirsty.
But why would I not just stay with Him? Why would I not constantly dwell in the oasis that He has provided for me?
The place that He has designated as a reprieve from the harshness and hopelessness and uncertainty of the desert.
The boundaries of the oasis actually give freedom, because in those boundaries is every single thing that I need to survive. And I can wander in the desert, and be in awe of all the space and all the directions that I could go, but it doesn't matter, because in the end, the desert will only bring death.
Because as full of possibility as it is, it cannot provide me with Living Water.
That can only be found in the Oasis.
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