Oh How He Loves Us

Living right next door to the youth center provides the kids with frequent opportunities to bang on our gate and ask us for things. The banging seems to be particularly incessant when there is no water. For some reason they think that if the youth center (which is right next to our house) has no water, then we must have water. And this is what happened last Saturday.

For five days no water had come into the compound where Sarah, Esther, and I live. We had no water in our pipes and only about 5 inches in our big blue barrel…not really even enough to wash from a bucket. On this day, I was especially tired and not feeling good…in no mood to deal with kids banging at the gate. There were two little girls who looked more poor than usual, with matted hair, thin little bodies, dirty faces, and ragged old clothes. All day they played by our gate and anytime we went in and out they asked for water, and sometimes they would just bang on the gate and ask again. Every time I told them we didn’t have any (except for the little in our blue barrel).

At one point, I was working at the kitchen table and I heard them yelling, “Lydia, Lydia.” I was so irritated that I didn’t even bother moving, I just yelled “Baca! Gidif!” which means “Enough! Stop!”

Later I was thinking about my response to these girls, and then I started coming under conviction for the way I responded to them. I started thinking, “What if I just gave these girls a drink of water? What if I gave every kid a drink of water that asked for one? Why don’t I give them a drink of water? What if the water ran out? ” These thoughts were all going through my mind when I went to bed that night.

In the middle of the night, I heard the water come on through the hose, and I thought, “Yes! We’re going to get water!” But when I got up in the morning, I looked in the blue barrel and realized that the water pressure had been so low that the amount of water had increased by only a few inches.” I just groaned.

As I was sitting in the quietness of our living room, I started thinking back to the day before and those two little girls. It was as if the Holy Spirit was saying to me, “Lydia, let Me tell you why you REALLY did not give those girls a drink. You don’t trust Me. If you really trusted Me, then you would have given those girls some water. You would have believed that I would and could provide for all your needs…even water. But, you didn’t give them water because you were afraid that if you gave it to them, there wouldn’t be any left for you.”

By this time, the water coming through the hose had completely stopped. I sat there in silence, realizing my disobedience to the Lord in not giving to those girls, for being so incredibly selfish, and my sin of not trusting God. I cried out, “Oh God, I am so sorry. I am so sorry for being so selfish and for not trusting that You will meet all my needs. Please forgive me.”

For what happened next, I will never cease to be amazed. It’s not some kind of magic, but only the incredible grace and love of God. About five minutes later, the water came back. This time not with a trickle, but a gush of water pouring from the hose; so much that we filled up every water container we have, and the water was still coming!

As I have reflected on all of this, I am overwhelmed by God’s incredible love towards me. At how He doesn’t just convict me of my sin and leave me alone, but He convicts me, forgives me, and then pours His love on me. And He is delighted to do it!

I wanted to share this with you because it is just one instance of God showing His incredible mercy and love! “My God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and forever.”  Oh how He loves us!

Advertisement