Like a million years ago water beds were a thing. And we had one.
Now don’t get all judgy. It was totally John, (THE PASTOR)’s fault.
Before we got married, he had a friend who owned a water bed company who got him a deal.
When John told me, my expression must have said I couldn’t possibly marry a guy with a water bed.
He got very reassuring and promised me there wasn’t a mirror above it, and it wasn’t the really bouncy kind.
He was astounded that this didn’t settle me down.
Anyway, we had that bed for about 10 years and periodically, water beds need to be drained and refilled. There was a wooden frame and a rubber insert with a port where the water could go out and in.
This is clearly a job that a godly wife does, so one summer day when our kids were little and a friend came over I drained the water bed and set it to re-filling with a hose upstairs while we sat and chatted at the kitchen table and the kids played in the yard.
It was the screaming of the kids that (eventually) got our attention.
They had gone upstairs and noticed our master bedroom flooded with water, the bed insert double its normal size like the most ginormous water balloon you can imagine, and a geyser of water spewing out where it just couldn’t hold any more.
Again, let’s just remember…John’s fault.
At least it was spouting clean water and not sewage, right?
What I had pumped in was what came out.
The other day, this verse was in my morning reading and the image of that exploding water bed came to mind.
My heart bursts its banks,spilling beauty and goodness. Psalm 45:1
And this oldie but goodie…
A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. Luke 6:45
If I were to explode today, what would spill out? What have I been filling up with that would soak anyone near me?
Frankly, I fill up with a lot of ME, and MY, a good dose of other stuff (read “crap”), but as I’ve written before, God’s Word helps me remember who and whose I am.
I wish this was like an exact formula, but it’s not. As a friend said yesterday, “You can’t do math to figure out a mystery.” We live in a broken world where there are terrible things that we are to turn towards, and shine light, and find the image of Jesus in others, and be kingdom bringers.
We’re not meant to live in a holy huddle, but it seems that God is saying we are to be intentional about filling our hearts with Him, with His Word, with Life-giving relationships…being “transformed by the renewing of your mind” in order that we might spill over into this broken world with beauty and goodness.
Another friend (I am so blessed to have wise friends to quote!!) says: “When you open your Bible God opens His mouth.”
So I open my Bible and in my reading after the Psalm 45 verse about bursting with goodness and beauty, I read this:
“Be strong. Take courage. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t give them a second thought because God, your God, is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you.” Deut. 31:6
… with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. Eph. 3:18-19
Lord, may You and Your Word so fill us today that we might spill over with beauty and goodness into a Monday world.
