Swirls and Patterns
by Barbara Chadwick

I dropped my jar of foundation in the bathroom sink. You know there are two seconds before you can respond. Your brain is screaming, "I can't believe you did that!" before your hand can move calmly toward the sink and retrieve it.

To clean it up I turned the water on. I thought the water would just wash it all down the sink. Instead it started to make swirls and patterns. As I watched it I thought of how our lives make swirls and patterns. Some are disturbing but God can take ugly patterns and make something beautiful

"I dropped the ball. It was my responsibility and I waited too late to begin planning. I kept thinking I would have time later. Later came and went. I'm sorry. I apologize to all of you. I am just a procrastinator." This life pattern never gets anything accomplished. Someone else has to pick up the pieces and try to make something of it.

One swirl kept going round and round.

"Mommy, do you love me?" the little girl asked. Recounting this her mother said, "It made me so sad that she had to ask me." This mother was so busy with church activities that she had little time for her own children. This pattern for her life was unhealthy spiritually. She was so busy she had no personal time for God. It was unhealthy physically because there was no time to take care of her physical needs. It was unhealthy emotionally because all her emotions were tied up in meetings at the church. After a divorce she was able to see how this pattern in her life had actually been harmful instead of redemptive. She was doing things from her own mind and strength and not from the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

Some swirls went down the drain immediately.

"I don't even recognize myself anymore. Life as we knew it is gone. We used to have people over all the time and we used to be so involved in the church." She had become so engrossed in her illness and the response of her body to it that she could no longer respond to others in their joys or sorrows. But now she recognized that she wasn't at the same place spiritually she used to be. Through prayer her spirit is being renewed.

Two patterns kept swirling around each other as the water flowed through the foundation. I was reminded that Jesus is the Living Water. He told the woman at the well in Samaria, "Whoever drinks from the water that I give will never get thirsty again... the water I give will become a well of water springing up within for eternal life!" John 4:14

Have you heard someone say to you or to another, "Your life and your testimony have inspired me to..."

"do my best"
"help others"
"live with this person"
"try harder"
"accept Jesus Christ"

Let us allow the Living Water that Jesus gives flow through our lives to make swirls and patterns that touch others and make His love and grace beautiful in their lives.