The Scent Of Water

Renewal is a strange wonderful thing. It can't be planned.

"For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put out branches like a young plant. But a man dies and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he? As waters fail from a lake and a river wastes away and dries up, so a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep. Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal should come. You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands." - Job 14:7-15 ESV

We can plan rest but not renewal. We can apply the paddles to our creative chest to try and jump start creativity. Sometimes that jolt works to restart us and sometimes it doesn't. Creativity happens at interesting times. We get 'new eyes' and suddenly possibilities become visible That we never saw before.

Grace is what often restarts me. Perhaps because it is the antidote for the things that stop me. Grace is the 'scent of water' that causes me to sprout in new configurations.

Human beings are creative creatures. We all have varying degrees of it and it is expressed in different ways and times. Some of us are oriented toward creative pursuits and others would rather things stay stable and continuous. Stability is important also.

"Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat." - Hebrews 13:9-10 ESV

The creative person will function in unexpected ways in common situations. It is fascinating to watch. The mundane pedestrian landscape turns into a magical flash mob and songs that never echoed down those streets suddenly do in grand fashion.

We have a table to eat from that not everyone knows about and it makes us special. There is a divine presence with us that is not governed by us or anyone. God is with those who believe. He tabernacles among us.

God fill us today. We have the stability and security of eternal rest. We want to walk in the unpredictable creativity of divine grace.

--