Rivers

I’ve watched her pretty closely for about five years now. She’s an amazing person. I’ve known a lot of believers from a lot of different places, but she is the person that I think about when I hear these verses, “Instead, they were longing for a better country - a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them” (Hebrews 11:16). If ever there was a person that didn’t belong here, that was looking for a better country, who God was not ashamed to call His...it’s her. 

I believe there is a city prepared for us all. I can’t wait to go there. I am fairly confident she will hold the key to the gate, or be the mayor, on the city council,  or something. All she does is serve people. All she talks about is Jesus. She prays without ceasing and she moves as the Spirit of God on the Earth. Her life has been one challenge after another. In spite of it all, she walks with so much more grace than the rest of us. 

Life has a way of taking our feet right out from under us. It does it in different ways. In fact, the longer I live, the more it seems like life just finds new ways to take the wind out of people’s sails. It happens to the good and the bad, the wealthy and the poor. It doesn’t matter what race, gender, belief system, anything really. Solomon said it best in Ecclesiastes 3, “there is a time for everything.” For all of us. 

So I guess, for the rest of us, it was a major shot to the gut when we found out that she was diagnosed with cancer. And an even more intense blow when we found out just how severe it is. Her days are limited. She’s well aware. Actually chose not to pursue any treatments. I can’t imagine. But for her, it was like it didn’t even phase her. Literally. And I can’t understand. I mean, I understand what she says. But I can’t comprehend how she can feel the way she does in the circumstances that she is in. I really question my ability to do the same. 

I hope I can handle my times with the same grace that she handles hers. You know that person in your life that it just seems like nothing can shake their faith? That person is a walking, living, breathing sermon to everyone around them. She is that person. Jesus said, “the one who believes in Me, rivers of living water will flow from her innermost being.” That pretty much sums it up. He always has a way of putting things into better words than I can. 

I don’t know how much longer our friend will be with us...physically any way. Something tells me the rivers that flow from her will continue to water dry places for a long, long time even after she’s gone. There is one thing I do know with more confidence than I have ever known anything...and that is where she will sit when it’s all said and done. Paul wrote about the greatest men and women of faith that ever lived in Hebrews 11. His conclusion, “the world is not worthy of them.”

So for all the people that have been blessed to know her, are there any better words than the ones already chosen by the Holy Spirit of God? The world is not worthy of her. Amen. 

I think I am beginning to understand why she is at peace. She will soon be in a place that is more than worthy of her presence. It will be the only place she has ever been that will feel like home to her. She must be excited. Until then, I pray for opportunities for all of us to stand at the rivers of living water. It’s life-changing. 

“Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” John 7:38