Just Add Water

Freeze-Dried Ice Cream

Freeze drying food is a fairly simple but amazing process that we can use to preserve food by freezing it and then removing the moisture from the substance. This process leaves intact the flavor and nutritional value of the substance. Perishable foods, like Ice Cream, can be freeze-dried and sealed, then left at room temperature, without refrigeration, for long periods of time. An additional benefit of the freeze drying process is that it makes the food light-weight, ideal for taking these tasty treats along when you’re hiking. Some of them may last for many years in their freeze-dried form… but not forever. Sooner or later, if you want to enjoy these treats, we have to consume them or they’ll go bad. Just open up the sealed packaging and add water.

Maybe our journey through life is sort of like hiking with a backpack loaded with freeze-dried supplies. We can go quite a distance before we have to refuel, but eventually we get hungry and need to stop and eat. When we’re hungry we add water and it’s delectable. We may even resist the temptation to refuel at times… right now, I would love to lose a few extra  pounds. Our we may be fasting in private as an act of obedience to God. When we’re on the trail, we may be looking off in the distance to a nice shady spot that’s near a babbling brook to enjoy our next meal. Whatever the case, we wouldn’t make it too far on our hike without food. It satisfies the hunger we experience as we ascend the pathway.

But do we really need our freeze-dried food, or water for that matter, to reach the next resting place, or mountain peak? Well, of course, that depends on your perspective. We may be able to go considerable distance hiking along the trial before we need to recharge… either a drink to quench or thirst, or to devour our lightweight packets of provisions (remembering to just add water!).

Sooner or later, if we want to keep going, we’re going to have to consume water. Isn’t life that way, too? I personally know tons of people who walk down the trails every day without God. In fact, I’m no different: I traveled considerable distance before accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior. For that matter, I may still take steps along my journey without Him. Whatever the case may be, that trail would someday come to an end, a cliff, or an impasse without God. I would love to keep on keeping on, finding a way around, over or through. And sometimes we do find a workaround for our dilemma, situation, pickle or plight. Without God, there is a definite end in sight. From our point of view, that may be quite far off in the distance, like viewing a mountain peak from the comfort of base camp. Then the journey begins. We get hungry, and thirsty too! I can resist that feeling, for quite a while sometimes. I may even make it up to the next summit. We often resist God too, in the same way we resist our hunger. Eventually, for most of us, that hunger for something more than this life grows and we come to know Him… receive Him… accept Him.

Whenever we accept Him we receive a gift. Yep, it’s refreshment. Water. Just add water and you’ve got eternal life. And, just as importantly, a comforter for the journey, the Holy Spirit. How do we know that?

“Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.” Psalm 70:4

Yep, just add water… that would be the starting point.

How far down the trail of life did you make it before realizing that you needed God to keep going?