A Hot and Thirsty Land

Posted by: Liezl Pienaar on November 02, 2011 | Staff Blog

The heat is oppressive.  There really is no escape from it.  The sun scorches down mercilessly and the earth (or at least this part of it) and its inhabitants bear the consequences.  Fans push the hot air around, without cooling anything down, “cold” water come out of the tap lukewarm, everything is warm to the touch – bedding, clothes, plates, glasses.  It never cools down inside, because we close the windows at 18:00 so malaria mosquitoes can stay where they belong – outside.  By the time we wake up around 06:00, the sun is back to its usual job. Spraying ourselves with mister bottles and lying in front of the fan brings temporary relief.  We long for, hope for, pray for rain.  It’s October in Zambia.  It’s hot.

Suddenly Psalm 42:1-2 gets a new, truer meaning:

“As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?”

Yes Lord, in this heat we long for coolness, for water.  In the same way my soul thirsts for you.  I can never get enough of the One who is always enough.  I look into you face, I spend time in your presence and I continue to want more, to thirst for the Living Water.  You quench my thirst.

Then, one day, I wake up.  I see the leaves rustling outside.  I throw open the windows to our house and….relief!  A cool breeze is blowing.  As it wafts through the house, the old, stale, hot air has to leave.  In it’s place comes the freshness and coolness of an early morning, a new day.

Lord, you bring refreshing, you bring newness, your mercies are new every morning.  Remove the old, the stale from my heart so that New Life can continually live in me.