Water From The Rock

There’s a fountain on my property.  Oh, it’s not one of those lovely Tuscan things I’ve drooled over while watching HGTV.  It’s not even one of those fiberglass faux-rock models I could purchase in the lawn and garden department at WalMart.  It makes a lovely sound, though.  Gurgle, gurgle, splash, splash.  The water is crystal clear and refreshingly cold.  The thing is the fountain bubbles and flows in the middle of my asphalt driveway.  I know what you’re thinking.  Ritzy!  She has a circle drive with an orb of lush grass right in the middle and center-stage is a concrete water feature to rival Buckingham Fountain in the heart of Chicago.

Wrong.

This water is from a busted pipe underneath the driveway.  The pipe that runs from the well house, under the lawn, under the driveway, and into the house has a leak somewhere.  Under pressure, when the pump kicks on, water spews out underground and fights its way to the surface where it finds an asphalt crack large enough to spit through.  So when I run the washing machine or dishwasher or take a shower, a percentage of the water that should come from the well to the house to my faucet is making its way onto the blacktop.

Enough of a concern?  Oh yes.  But my husband left for a week in the Canadian wilderness this morning.  He knew about the problem, but he’s convinced this “little seepage” won’t likely develop into anything more serious while he’s gone.  Is he kidding?  These things ALWAYS develop into something serious when he’s gone!  The cows break down the fence around the pasture or one of his children decides to date someone horrible or lightning strikes the satellite dish or I have to have emergency surgery…The family joke is that when he returns from Canada every year, his first words are, “Okay.  What broke this time?”

I like indoor plumbing.  I really do.  That’s why he goes to the wilderness without me.  I like faucets and sinks and showers and washing machines and dishwashers and toilets too much to live without them and call it a vacation.

I’d dig up the driveway, find the leak, replace the pipe, and resurface the driveway myself while he’s gone, but I might break a fingernail.  Then I’d have an answer for his question.  “What broke this time?”

“I broke a nail, honey.  Welcome home.”

I have a new respect for the miraculous provision for the children of Israel in their wilderness.  Water from a rock?  That’s not natural.

PRAYER: Thank You, Lord, for all the ways You show how remarkable You are, how extraordinary Your ways, how exceptional Your grace.

“Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob; which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters,” Psalm 114:7-8 KJV.

Today’s devotional is by Cynthia Ruchti, writer and producer of the radio ministry THE HEARTBEAT OF THE HOME and current president of American Christian Fiction Writers.  Cynthia’s debut novel—They Almost Always Come Home—releases from Abingdon Press in Spring 2010.  Cynthia writes stories of hope that glows in the dark.  www.cynthiaruchti.com.