Last summer on a very hot day I took off down the street with my dog. The sun was going down and I thought it would be cool enough to walk. But it was very warm, sultry and muggy. Thinking that I would be walking in the cool of the evening I hadn't brought water for me or my dog. We walked for about twenty minutes, and I felt dizzy and faint. Ross was panting, showing signs of distress. I was thirsty. My dog was thirsty and water was the only thing I could think about. We rounded the corner and a friendly neighbor noticed my plight. "What are you doing walking that dog in this kind of heat? You don't look well."
He walked to his garden hose, turned it on and gave me and Ross both a drink. Then he brought out a small plastic bowl for Ross and an ice cold bottle of water for me. Every time I walk past his house now I remember how that neighbor rescued us that day and how kind he was to give us water.
God apparently is much the same way except he is much more extravagant in his giving. In Isaiah we read that the thirsty cry out to God for water. But God gives much more than a cup of water to those who ask. God opens up the heavens as it were, he makes the deserts into rivers. He makes the dry places green and lush with vegetation. He pours forth more water than we would ever ask for or dream. God overdoes it. And why does he overdo it? Because he wants to make it clear that he is God.
It is a commonly held belief today that God doesn't exist, but in times before ours people worshiped images which they made from metal or wood. God spent a lot of time simply making himself known to his people. He repeatedly tells us that he made the earth and everything in it. He tells us that he listens to his people pray and acts on their behalf. He used his people Israel as a witness to his existence. He brought them across the Red Sea on dry land. He fed them manna, food from heaven, while they traveled through the desert. He made water gush out of a rock. But his people, like us now, were quick to quit believing and to turn to their idols. Most of us don't worship idols like they did then, but rather we don't believe God because he cannot be proved using the scientific method. Basically, if we can't see, touch, hear, feel or smell God, we cease believing. If God doesn't measure up to science, then we just turn away from the possibility of God. Our ancestors turned to idols, and I think they did this because they could see, touch, hear, feel and smell idols. It is indeed difficult to believe in a God who is unseen.
But God exists. He has proven himself in every thing that he created. And he continues to reach out to prove to us his people that he is the only God and that there will never be another God after him. So when he gives water he gives it in divine proportions. When he gives food to the hungry there are leftovers to spare. When God heals, he heals completely, and the whole body and mind are like new. When God loves, he loves with abandon, withholding nothing. This way, as we watch God work and as we experience his blessing, we are more likely to know that it must be from God. The work is too big and the blessing too great to be brought about by a human. Like my neighbor, many of us do good things and give good things. God though is different. When he gives, he wants us to know that he gave. He wants us to recognize that he is the one giving.
I often forget about God's gifts and once my need is met, I am prone to thinking that "things just worked out", that I deserved it because of my hard work, or that I just got lucky but God, during my entire time of need was pouring out, orchestrating and sustaining me in my need. It was him. I think that's what he wants us to learn from his extravagance. It is him, and there is no one else like him.
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