Water



Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. John 7:38

Just a few minutes ago I made a lovely pot of tea. This is not unusual. I do it almost every day, often more than once a day. This morning I emptied the water left from yesterday out of the tea kettle. Why? Excellent question. There was nothing wrong with that water. I could have just added to it.

While I was waiting for the train whistle sound, indicating the boiling point, I cleaned out a dish and ran my garbage disposal, more running water. Then I filled a large cup with water from my refrigerator. During these processes I also washed my hands and my counter. Water, water everywhere....

I was taken this morning, not for the first time and hopefully not for the last time, by how very grateful I am to have clean, plentiful, hot and cold running water. Today that led me to think of all the other “ordinary” things we take for granted.

While making my tea, I had lights on in my kitchen. I took milk from my refrigerator to make my husband's breakfast. I refilled his vitamin box and used my dryer. Now I'm in my well lit office, drinking the aforementioned tea, typing on my computer and still thinking of the women and children who walk miles to collect water for their families and the men who do the same in order to get their work done.

Just about everything we do requires water in some way. For those of us who are blessed to live in well developed countries, water is a given. We drink it, cook with it, bathe in it, clean with it, swim in it and on and on. Are you grateful for it? I am so grateful for it now, but that has not always been the case and there are still days that I just take it for granted.

For the past thirty years or so I've kept a gratitude journal. I write in it at night, thanking God for the gifts of the day. Just a few years ago I started keeping a blessings journal as well. That one is written in the morning, book ending my day with acknowledgments of all that God is doing and has done for me. A year or so ago I got an even deeper perspective on that when my daughter asked, “Mom, what would you have tomorrow if you only had what you gave thanks to God for today?”

What a great question! It led to a fairly lengthy conversation for us and now I pose the question to you. Given that we all often take some pretty important things for granted (ahem, water...) what will you have tomorrow if it is only the things for which you gave thanks today?

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