Tiny Drops of Life

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire!  (Luke 24:32)

How does a tree get its water?

If you as a person want to get water, you take a drink.  You pour it into your mouth.

But how does a tree get water?

You might think, “Well, water falls on it, and it soaks it up, like a sponge.”

So if you take a bath, it’s a like taking a drink?

No.  People take in water through their mouth.  And trees take in water through their roots.

The life-giving water starts at the roots and it flows to the rest of the tree, one tiny little drop of life at a time.

Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” 

Life flows from the vine to the branch.

So what does that look like in real time?  How does that spiritual life, that living water, flow from Jesus to us?

I think we’re usually looking for big things, the thunderstorm, the flood, the spiritual tsunami that sweeps us into God’s plan.

But I think it’s more like how water flows from the vine to the branch:  one tiny drop of life at a time.

For example, here’s a tiny drop that I believe God dropped into my life.

At the time my wife and I had four small children, and I was working each day until about 6 p.m.  I would come home and the kids would have already eaten.  It was a bit scattered, but I don’t think we even thought about it. 

Then I went to a Promise Keepers event.  There were thousands of men, singing and praising God and it was powerful.  So there I was, standing and singing with the rest of them, my hands in the air, and all of a sudden a phrase popped into my mind, “Start having family dinners.”

It was so out of the blue, I stopped singing, sort of stunned.  I finally just sat down to let it sink in for a minute.  And while the rest of the men stood around me, singing, I wrote down this little note.  “Start having family dinners.”

And we did!  We started having family dinners.  There was bonding and conversation, and it really brought a good, new dynamic to our family.

It was a tiny drop of life that I believe flowed from Jesus, the vine, into me, the branch.

And I think that’s how our spiritual lives usually work.  Yes, sometimes God speaks to us in the thunder and the flood, but I think most of His work in our lives probably comes in these daily little ways, where His Spirit talks to our spirit, and He pours Himself into us...one tiny drop of life at a time.

May God bless you, today.

I’m Doug Apple.