At the beginning of September, I told about my visit to the
Old 100 Gold Mine in Silverton, CO. The dripping of water through the ‘solid’
granite struck me as a metaphor for the way God’s grace can seep into our
hearts.
I have been to Carlsbad Caverns a couple of times. The
beauty of the formations inside that mountain are very different from the
man-made tunnels at Silverton. The limestone strata that formed Carlsbad is
very different from the granite of the Rocky Mountains. Through both types of
rock, water seeps.
There was enough ground water coming out of the granite at
the mine that it had a drainage trench running out of it. The guide noted that
during mine operations (long ceased) that drainage served as a sewer as well as
drainage for mine waste and the water that seeped in. Now, he said, it is probably
safe to drink. (I doubt I’d have tried it even if offered!).
At Carlsbad, the water is full of dissolved minerals. The
cave itself was hollowed out be water over many eons of eating away at the
soluble rock. Now, water seeping through the rocky minerals that remain is
re-deposited on the floor and ceiling of the caves form the stalactites and
stalagmites.
Consider the 2 underground environments as metaphors for our
hearts and lives. We can live with hearts of stone and let very little of God’s
grace soak through and even less run out except after drilling and blasting
makes a way. Or we can have hearts opened by the Living Water so that grace and
love can seep in to form beautiful things.
In our day to day lives we encounter influences, news,
problems, and conflicts that might seep into our hearts as pollution. Over
time, if we aren’t careful, these things can clog our open hearts and stop the
flow of God’s grace. We may need to do some drilling to allow those thing out
of our hearts. How do we let the bad things run out of our hearts and keep the
good Grace in to nourish our hearts?
The answer is restated over and over in scripture. In
Deuteronomy 4:29, the people of Israel are reminded, “seek the
LORD your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with
all your soul.” Peter tells the crowd in Jerusalem, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that
times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” (Acts 3:19)
God promises to replace our heart of stone. In Ezekiel
11:19, we hear, “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit
in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of
flesh”. Later on, Ezekiel
repeats God’s promise, “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and
put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh
and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26)
This week, I’m going to take some time to
consider how ‘stony’ my heart is and offer to God the chance of opening it with
God’s grace so that I may be have a heart of flesh that is available. When I
encounter things that might pollute my heart, I’m going to try and offer them
to God to wash out. I know God is faithful and will hear my requests.
