While listening to some music on the radio, I heard a song playing that used the lyric's or phrase "Just Look What We've Done." I never really caught all the verse's or lyrics to the song but that particular phrase stuck in my mind. The song itself was relating to what is going on in much of our world today and how much of a mess it is in. It reminded me of how God in the beginning intended our world to be before He actually created it and put it into motion. Something that was meant to be beautiful and forever lasting turned into something quite the opposite. So what happened anyway? How did this once beautiful creation end up in such a mess?
Have you ever seen absolutely clean, pure, fresh water and tasted it also? I have, or at least it was the purest I have ever experienced. Taking a hike with some young people many years ago I can still recall just how wonderful and refreshing that water was. We had been hiking for some time and needed some fresh water. We came across a small stream coming up out of a snow pack, this water was the melted ice from a glacier above. It ran freely and popped up out of the snow pack every once in a while then disappeared again as it traveled on down the mountain side. I filled my canteen with this fresh, cold water and began to drink some, and wow, what a refreshing moment that was. It was really cold and had no flavor whatsoever. I waited for a couple of minutes and had some more, experiencing that refreshing moment all over again. I continued drinking that water until my canteen was almost empty. It seemed I could not get enough of this pure water. Finally, we had to move on, I filled my canteen again and journeyed on. We had reached our destination and played around in the snow and ice pack for a while just enjoying the day. I could not wait to get some more of that water.
A few years ago the area we live in experienced a fairly large flood. Many farms and lowlands were covered in very nasty, muddy water. Once the waters began to recede it left layers of silt and debris over many areas. The water just looked horrible with the mud mixed into the once fresh, clean water of the McKenzie River. The scars of that flood stayed with us for several years. Some of the landscape had changed because of the high waters, some homes were destroyed by either the waters entering the house or the land was washed out from under them. What a contrast of two waters, one extremely fresh, the other extremely polluted.
I have always been amazed at how God after creating the earth formed all living things then started the living process of life. Not an evolutionary process, the process of life started from Gods word. The earth was created for life and it was created perfectly. God then put man on earth in an absolutely perfect environment. You can read the account in Genesis 1:1-2:8. I can imagine the water must have been perfectly pure, refreshing to the body and the soul. Man was given an awesome responsibility when he was placed in this beautiful garden. He was given the responsibility of taking care of the garden and was given free reign on how he did this, Genesis 1:26-27. Only one rule existed for man, and that rule would test faithfulness of him to his Creator, Genesis 2:15-17. In the next chapter of Genesis we find the result of that faithfulness, man turned on his Creator and rebelled against His word. Genesis 3 is a sad, sad story of mankind's decision.
As I listened to the lyrics of that song, I was reminded again of the responsibility mankind was given by the Creator, Jehovah. Our first reaction to something like this song is to blame someone else, blame Adam, blame Eve, blame my neighbor or my co-worker, blame the government, blame my wife or my children, but by no means blame me. When you read that scripture in Genesis about being given authority over this earth and all the animals, birds and fish and then listen to some lyrics of a song that makes a statement like "just look at what we've done" begins to shed light on just what it means when you hear about the fall of mankind. We have really messed it up, we've taken the pure, fresh bubbling water that was given for our enjoyment and refreshment and turned it into a flooded mess of muddy, polluted water that is good for nothing unless it gets cleaned and filtered to remove all that horrible mess.
Christ, God's only son was going to be that method of cleansing and filtering that we humans are in need of, Genesis 3:14-15. Unless we choose to be cleansed and run through the filter of Jesus Christ's blood, this world we live in will become more polluted, more muddy with the silt of the world covering the landscape of our souls until we will no longer be able to find the fresh, pure water of God's love for us. Like the pure water that flowed out from the snow pack in the mountains and provided such a refreshing and quenching of my thirst, the Holy Spirit will quench the thirst of our empty and thirsty souls. I found myself longing for that pure water over and over because it was so satisfying. Jesus Christ is the fountain that provides that water that will quench your thirst once and for all. The scriptures tells us that Christ provides living water and it will quench our thirst eternally. "When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a jew and I am a Samaritan woman, How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?" 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 4:7-13.
"Look at what we have done" the lyrics say, look how we humans have muddied the world we were given to care for, look how we have messed up the good things God has given us to care for. We have muddied our souls with the enemies way of thinking and we hide our shameful acts by keeping the beauty of His creation buried in the silt of rebellion and sin. Only through Christ, Gods plan for our salvation can we filter the sin and rebellious nature from our souls. It is through Christs blood that was shed for us that we can have our souls cleansed from the muddiness of this world. It is through Christ that we are offered the fresh, pure water of the Holy Spirit that will quench our thirst eternally. John 14:6 gives us direction, a simple and forth right way to the truth of how to quench our thirst and fill our emptiness in our souls. In Isaiah 43:19-20 God is reminding His children, Israel, that He will provide for them and quench their thirst. He will provide a stream in the desert so His people can be refreshed.
Isn't that a wonderful picture of how loving our Heavenly Father is? He will make sure we have that fresh water that bubbles up out of the ice so we can be refreshed and have our spiritual thirst quenched eternally with living water. If you are in a dry, barren place in your life, why not return to the Creator and ask Him to provide living water for you through His son Jesus Christ. Like the pure, clean, refreshing water I experienced one day on a mountain side during a hike, I drank from that stream and was refreshed beyond measure. Although that refreshment did not last, it caused me to long for more. Jesus Christ will provide your muddied soul with fresh, clean, pure living water and as you take in this water you will find that it will quench that dry, parched soul. It will replace the polluted land of your life with the purest and most refreshing experience you will ever have. In Revelation 3:20 it says; "Look, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me." What an outstanding invitation, asking Jesus, God's Son to come in to your life and enjoy a great spiritual meal together and have someone to actually care for you just as you are. Can't get any better than that, right?
