Back in the days long ago when I studied chemistry, I can remember learning about saturated solutions. A saturated solution has reached the point at which a solution of the substance can dissolve no more of that substance and additional amounts of it will appear as a separate phase (as a precipitate). Saturation – from the Latin saturare, to fill – means that no more water can be absorbed. It’s completely soggy, wet through, dripping with liquid.
Somehow, that image reminds me of Jesus’s words in Luke 6:38 TNIV: “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” God is capable of saturating us so that there is an overflow. And as we learn to receive from Him, so we must learn to give to others, so that this ‘good measure’ can be passed on, and then, in ways that we don’t fully understand, God gives back to us. Far from being a dry, wrung-out cloth that is stiff and inflexible, we are like a moist sponge. When squeezed by life, what comes out is the living water God has poured in to us! We give to others from the overflow of our hearts, which will always reflect what is in our hearts.
As we have recently experienced lots of rain again and probably face months of unsettled weather, let’s remember that when God rains on us, it helps us to be fruitful and let’s pour out all that He gives us into lives of generous service.