Christ is the water that satisfies us in the wilderness.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

                                   “O God, you are my God.
                                        At dawn I search for you.
                                             My soul thirsts for you.
                                             My body longs for you in a dry,
                                                  parched land where there is no water.”
                              Psalm 63:1 God’s Word to the Nations

Eli took this picture on his sixth birthday. He and his friends played with a sprinkler, threw water balloons, and, of course, ate cake and ice cream. When his friends drifted home, and we had finished a round of SNAG golf, we took a stroll through Loveland’s Benson Sculpture Park. We didn’t make this trip to see the sculptures per-say, but to play…you guessed it…Pokemon Go.

I go very few places without a camera and carrying my Sony a6000 with me, I handed it to Eli. We were standing on a small bridge of a tiny creek filled with cattails. He immediately turned around, leaned over a guardrail, and snapped this picture.

Water is a wonderful reminder of how God refreshes our souls.

Why?

It might be that he was captivated by the allure of the running water. I took one of my favorite pics at the Tincup Cemetery in Colorado where a small creek cascaded among the tombs; life in the midst of death. King David was experiencing a life and death moment when he wrote these words. His enemies desired to consume him. His parched soul longed for God, the water that would satisfy him even in his personal desert.

Thirst and hunger are good metaphors for something that takes place deep in the core of our being. We are not satisfied by the enticements of the world when our soul does battle in the wilderness. Like drinking salt water, finding hope in things other than Christ only leads to a deeper thirst.

David was in the middle of his wilderness experience when he sang this psalm. His hope of future satisfaction was rooted in his past experience of seeing God active in his sanctuary (v. 2). Our hope is rooted in the power of Jesus’ forgiveness; a past experience that holds true today. Though we might still be traveling through our wilderness, we can sing with David, “Because you are my helper, I sing for joy in the shadow of your wings.” Psalm 63:7 New Living Translation

Text Copyright Douglas P Brauner
Photography Copyright Eli Brauner