Ice

My ice maker is on the fritz.   

Not on the fridge... on the fritz.   It's fritzed out...

I'm not complaining about it.   It's been inoperable for several years now.    

Does not work.

There is probably a simple fix for it, but I've just never bothered.

Not that I mind.    I bought some plastic ice trays from today's version of the five and dime store and life went on.

I have filled and emptied and filled and emptied these plastic ice trays for years now.  

Every time I do this, I think of my childhood when home ice makers didn't exist.    If they did, I was not aware of them.  We didn't have one.    Shoot!  We were barely past the time where you had to go buy a block of ice to put in your icebox.     No, little ones, I am not making this up.   I was a kid in the good old days.

We had ice trays that needed to be filled when they were empty.

So you see, what appeared at first to be an inconvenience actually became a pleasure taking me back in time to simple days (if there ever was such a thing).

Of course, there are some draw backs to using ice trays as opposed to an automatic ice maker.

If I want ice, I have to remember to refill them.    If I want to offer my family and friends an ice cold drink, I have to make sure that the ice trays have been filled and frozen.    

Sometimes, I don't remember.    And sometimes, I think I will just do it in a little bit cause I have to answer the phone or the door or something is on TV that distracts me.

When the trays are left unfilled and unfrozen, I run out of ice.    What an inconvenience!   And what a disappointment when I go to the freezer and realize what has happened.       

No ice for me.  No ice for any one.

I guess the same things can be said for a relationship with Jesus.   I love how He can take us back to the simple truth of a life with Him.

 If I want to be filled, I have to make an effort.   I don't want to run out and be at a loss because I neglected to be filled.   Don't get me wrong.   I believe and know that when we are born again, we are sealed with the deposit of the Holy Spirit.   Yet the Spirit must be fed.      If He is going to use me to tell others of His gift of salvation, He has to fill me with His living water.   And I have to go to Him to receive it.

It is a constant and continual connection.   He said He would give us living water.    That is an ongoing process.   Never ending, yet not automatic.  

To endure and overcome the tribulations of this life.   To be able to offer living water to others, we have to be consistent and persistent in being filled by the Holy One, constantly in His Word, in prayer... at the source... always filled.

 "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”     John 4: 14

"On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”    John 7: 37-38

"Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."  2 Corinthians 1: 21-22