…search for it as for hidden treasure… (Proverbs 2:4 NIV)
Your Word I have treasured in my heart… (Psalm 119:11 NASB)
I hurried to the Well, my heart soaring, my earth feet barely touching the ground. I was breathless when I arrived. I spotted Him watching Lesser Gold Finches. They were hanging from the sides of the birdfeeders enjoying their breakfast. Spotting me, they darted into a nearby mesquite tree, adorning its branches like tiny flecks of lights.
“Lord,” I said excitedly, the words overflowing as if someone had left a faucet on someplace deep inside me. I laughed and cried all at once as I shared the news with the One my soul loves. “Lord, my Elizabeth is engaged. Mike asked her to be his very own. And wait till you hear how he proposed to my precious daughter!” I barely took a breath as I told Him the story.
“Mike and Elizabeth were in Big Sur hiking. Mike, knowing Elizabeth’s great affection for all things feathered, hid a bird’s nest in a bush. He called her back to where he stood next to the bush as he excitedly told her that he had found a nest. Elizabeth peered into the shrubbery, spied the nest, but believing it to be a fake; turned to continue on her way up the trail. But Mike urged her to stop and take a closer look. Elizabeth leaned in and carefully lifted the nest from its hiding place, and looking closely, caught her breath. She had found treasure!
“She looked at Mike, trying to take in what her eyes saw. She returned her gaze to the nest, and gently lifted the ring from its home of twigs. In that moment, Mike knelt down and asked her to be forever his. And she said yes! I think it is the best proposal ever; even better than Mr. Darcy’s proposal in Pride and Prejudice.” I fell silent as He whom my heart loves invited me to join Him in a corner of the garden.
I sat down at His feet, and we were quiet for a time as a brilliant yellow butterfly danced on flower petals nearby. My thoughts drifted back to Mike and Elizabeth’s engagement and how she had been so intent on the hike that she had nearly missed the treasure. My heart looked up into the eyes of the One who laid down His life for me, and I caught my breath as I realized how once I too had been hiking up life’s trail. I was lost, but then He found me and invited me to be His forever. In His Presence, I discovered treasure: Forgiveness of sin, eternal life, a relationship with God through Jesus.
Knowing my thoughts, He led me gently to His word and I asked Him to tell me what it said—that’s the best way to study His word. His voice sounded like rushing water as He spoke, “For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 NASB)
“Lord, I take it back,” I whispered. “What?” He asked. “Yours is the best proposal I have ever heard. Help me to share it with everyone. Help me to be like Mike, and call others to come and look into Your word, and as they do, may they too discover the treasure of knowing You—of belonging to You.”
We sat in the morning stillness for a time and then I said, “Lord, teach me to slow down and take time with You in Your word. It is so easy to get busy out there on life’s trails that I inhale bits of Scripture as if from a spiritual canteen, never even breaking stride. Help me to stop and even at times lay down in the very streams of life giving water, emerged in it, drenched through. Then help me carry it out to a thirsty world.”
“I will,” He said. “I will.”
Then I walked into the day carrying in my heart, treasure.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves… (2 Corinthians 4:7 NASB)
An Original Conversations at the Well
© Copyright by Diana Morgan, May 20, 2011
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