What are the wellsprings in your life?
It was very early in my relationship with my
wife Diana that we drove up to Bass Rocks near Gloucester, Massachusetts. We loved to sit there and watch the surf
pounding on the rocks below. We would
take our bibles, read together and pray.
At that stage we thought we weren’t dating, just hanging out as friends. I had a gallon jug of fresh squeezed apple
cider and we shared, drinking straight out of the jug. I still remember the expression on her face
when I first passed her the jug. My informality
was obviously a challenge.
Years ago my wife Diana and I were engaged but
separated by distance for several months.
Diana was in Massachusetts and I in New Brunswick, Canada. We would look
into the western night sky and see Venus floating over the Moon. In a way it was our “star”, a wellspring of
comfort that came from knowing that we were looking at the very same thing on
the very same night.
When we were first married we lived in a third
floor walk-up furnished apartment in Toronto.
The whole apartment and all the furniture were in shades of brown. We referred to it as excrement brown, only we
weren’t that polite about it. The only
cheerful place was the bathroom with its white porcelain tub and toilet, and
its horrible pink tile and turquoise trim.
We would sit for hours on the edge of the tub and talking. St. Paul says, “Do not let the sun go down on
your anger.”[i] We spent a lot of sleepless nights, just talking
and getting adjusted to each other. Talking with one another has been a
wellspring of joy over the years.
Some years later we sat at the little table by
the picture window in our cottage on Great Neck near Ipswich, Massachusetts. It was a wonderful picture window. Looking out in one direction we could see the
varied shades of green marsh grasses and brown mud and the clammers digging for
clams. Looking in the other direction we
could see Plum Island and the blue green ocean beyond. There is a wonder in the shared beauty of God’s
creation; and always, talking, talking and just being together.
Our friends Oon Chor and Peck Lim Khoo had just
returned from the Philippines and lived with us in Watertown, Massachusetts for
several months. Tim had just been born
and I remember Oon Chor changing him on the changing table. Tim was babbling on as babies babble, and all
of a sudden Oon Chor exclaimed, “He just said the Chinese word for “pork”. So we had a Chinese pork dish for supper that
evening. Living together for those
months gave us a wellspring of love that has lasted over the years and even to
this day we each keep the other in our prayers and affection.
We were in England with the children; Tim was
six and Julie three. Near Winchester we
stayed in a bed and breakfast at the home of Robin Anstey. We had a classic English fry, eggs, sausage,
fried tomatoes, and toast. I looked out
on their back porch and saw several bags of garden soil. Each bag had been slit open and a tomato
plant planted directly in the bag. We
went on to Wells Cathedral. The children
thought it was just a big play area, but when we came to Salisbury Cathedral
they immediately went to a side altar, knelt and prayed. There is a wellspring of joy in holy places
and in shared experience.
We sat on the patio by the pool yesterday
morning with our Prayer Books and bibles and prayed the Morning Office
together. It was Wednesday and in the
evening we were starting a new study at Trinity in Dallas on the little book of
Ruth. Did you know that the name “Ruth”
means friend. Her friendship with Naomi
was marked by commitment to each other, and by commitment to the LORD. “Where you go, I will go, and your God will
be my God.”
We live by necessity in the habitation of
dragons; that’s just the nature of our world.
The Psalmist says, “[ii]Blessed
are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the Valley of Weeping they
make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; each one
appears before God in Zion.” We travel
together hand in hand as pilgrims in a foreign land, with our eyes set on the
goal of our heavenly home. All along the
way we have found wellsprings of joy and comfort. Those wellsprings are marked by shared
experience of trials and joys alike, by many hours of conversation, by the
beauty of God’s creation, by our family and friends, by times of laughter, and
often just by the quiet business of just being together.
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