Icicles

It's another beautiful day in the Midwest! So beautiful, in fact, that I left the office just before lunch today so I could make it home. And I mean that literally!

About 9:00 this morning it started raining and the temperature is a balmy 32 degrees. So I kept going to the doors to see how much was actually freezing on the parking lot and when I noticed a good amount of ice I headed for home. Our church building sits down a hill, and the drive leading to the parking lot is difficult in bad weather and I really didn't feel like spending the night in my office, so I came home to work. (There's food here!)

Throughout the day as I've gone upstairs I have watched the icicles grow on the trees and my deck. I stopped a moment ago and watched.

The rain coming down is actual rain, not freezing rain. But the temperature is hovering right at the freezing mark so as the rain drips from the railing on the deck some of it drips off but some of it freezes. And that got me to thinking.

I have, over the years, worked on memorizing passages from the Bible. But I'm not very good at remembering things, so very often after I've spent a day memorizing a passage when I wake up the next morning I can't remember it. I used to think I was a failure at this and that I was wasting my time.

But over the years I have been amazed at how, whenever I need it, a verse I memorized years ago and thought I had forgotten, suddenly pops back into my head! And as I watched the icicles grow it dawned on me that this is how our study of God's word works.

We read something, maybe even work at memorizing it, and then the next day it seems to be gone. But in actuality a small, maybe even minute, part of it has frozen into our soul. Day after day, verse after verse, the Word begins to grow in us and after a period of time we are able to see it.

Maybe you have just started in your walk of faith and it seems that nothing is happening. But something is happening! Give it some time! When I got home there were no icicles on my deck, but hour by hour they have grown. Keep reading God's Word. It will take hold!

Think about it.