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Sprinkler




My baby who always sleeps well, did not sleep well. His round, sweet little body wanted to be squished up next to mine. The night was short, my dear husband worked early, and the troops have more energy than their commander.
I wanted to sink into the couch, even before coffee, and sail away to slumber for the morning. That's not practical or worth it, on a Thursday morning. The troops sense I'm dragging and they speed up. There's mess from all the fun we've had, and it brings me anxiety that threatens to overshadow the memories. I can't find my favorite nursing cover, and the beautiful baby settles in for a nap. The troops want to swim, and my head swims too- its hot already and my brain is foggy like the summer smoke that rolled in last night.
I'm supervising a dip in our cold hot tub, but my heart is pining over a school year unfinished and a home that refuses to meet my unrealistic standards of tidiness. My heart thinks an impossible move to the country would settle all my priorities into place, but my head knows better.
My eyes are pulled to the sprinkler I set that morning, staying trained to its motion as it leans one way then the other. The grass is dry and the garden still green, and suddenly I see the Lord.
In my chaos and crazy, he is that sprinkler, watering the green and the dry side by side. Quietly, back and forth it goes, steady drops of water.
He's faithful like that. He doesn't come clean my house for me or zip a lifejacket for me, or tell everyone to stop talking to me at once. He isn't a check list, a to-do list, or a task, or even in a hurry. He stays and leans back and forth quietly, sprinkling, sprinkling.
A sprinkler in the shed is really no use at all.
A sprinkler in one place leaves no balance.
A sprinkler present but disconnected brings no benefit.
He's longing for you, waiting, leaning in close. He is life like no other.

John 4:14 (ESV)
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.[a] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

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