Poor, beautiful ducks

Ducks are made to swim. They are made to dive and glide and paddle and submerge and float and enjoy everything there is to enjoy about water! Every other day, I walk out to our "duck pond" to empty it and fill it with fresh water. I love and hate this chore all at the same time. I LOVE watching the ducks, Jack and Jill, waddle over and search the muck and mud for tasty morsels. I LOVE watching them hop in the "pond" and splash and clean and fight for space. But that's when I start hating it. Our "duck pond" is a kiddie pool. I'm sure they get dizzy going in tight circles trying to do what they are created to do! I'm sure they hate it when their webbed feet scrape the hard, blue plastic bottom. I KNOW they hate fighting each other for a bit of space to spread their wings and try swimming. And if they could talk and feel, I'm sure they'd ask me if there's anything I could do about getting them a lake or something a bit bigger!

I really do love those silly ducks. But sometimes I want to cry because they aren't being able to experience the fullness of what they were created to do and enjoy. Someday it will get the best of me and I'll be hauling them to the duck pond in our nearby town. I get excited thinking about them enjoying all that water and space!

Don't you think that sometimes Jesus looks at us and wants to cry because we're trying to swim in kiddie pools of His Spirit rather than finding and enjoying the great river of His glorious Spirit that He promised to pour in and through us? Nothing in us works quite right when we're all cramped up in the kiddie pools. . . . not our personality, our talents, our gifting . . . nothing. We are created to be in the River. We don't really know who we are created to be or what we could do, just how far or fast our webbed feet could take us if we were on the river rather than trying to swim tight circles in safety.

Whenever we're ready, Jesus is standing by to transport us to the River (or maybe, to transport the River to us). He's just waiting for our permission. Because unlike Jack and Jill, we get to choose to leave the kiddie pool in search of the Great River or choose to stay in the safety of our tight circles. So how about jumping out of the kiddie pool right into the arms of Jesus. Ask him to bring the River, to teach you about who you are created to be and do when the River is flowing in and through you and when you are submerged in it! Have fun discovering His glorious height, width, breadth, and depth!

Luke 11:11-13
"You fathers - if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him."