Speaking Of Life 2016 | Granny’s Lake
Jeff Broadnax
Years ago, a young woman married into a family who owned some farmland. The land was on a small mountain full of fruit trees and open fields. A perfect place to raise a family. But this land also had a secret. A previous generation had sold the mineral rights to the property. When bauxite, a valuable rock used to make aluminum was discovered, the miners came calling.
After they emptied the land of its hidden treasure, a deep dusty crater was left in the middle of the farm. It was an eyesore that couldn’t be hidden.
But this land had a deeper treasure hidden beneath its surface. An underground stream. The stream ran from one end of the farm to the other and began to slowly fill the empty crater with fresh water. The young woman raised her family on that farm while watching the crater transform into a beautiful lake. The family stocked the lake with fish and grew flowering trees on its banks.
Sometime later a local church needed a place to hold baptisms. So, the family dug out and attached a small section to the lake that would serve as a baptismal pool. To this day, countless people have been baptized in those waters.
This unlikely reservoir of redemption, called “Granny’s Lake,” was named after the young woman who told the story to her grandchildren.
As a metaphor, Granny’s Lake reflects a deeper truth for all of us. Jesus is the stream of living water that fills the deep pits dug out in our souls. It doesn’t matter how many buried secrets you may have or if those secrets have been exploited. Jesus gets to the bottom of our deepest craters to fill us and transform us from the inside out.
Listen to what Jesus says to another young woman whose personal life had emptied her of public value.
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14 ESV)
If you have grown weary and thirsty from trying to fill the empty craters in your own life, allow Jesus to give you that same living water that leaves you transformed and satisfied. Then dive in and let him work in your life as an overflow of refreshment for others.
I’m Jeff Broadnax, Speaking of Life.
