The laterite rock basin beneath.
Some years ago brother Leon and his wife Jo, and yours truly and Rose went for a long drive. West of Ceduna we turned north up to Maralinga, then headed due west until we got into WA. When we reached the first town (Laverton, I think), we headed north up into the Pilbara and then the Kimberly.
There’s lots to tell about that trip but I want to tell you about one small episode. (If you’ve heard this before forgive me – I’m never really sure when I’m picking up an item a second time). Driving up on the Gibb River Road – rough as guts, and washed away in many places – we arrived one afternoon at the King Edward River which was in flood. We wanted to cross over because that was the way to the Mitchell Plateau and Mitchell Falls. However, the just visible aerial of a 4WD that got washed off the crossing was fair warning.
Not long after we set up tents a couple of Rangers rocked up in their 4WD – contemplated for a while – tested water depth by walking across – cleared the biggest rocks off the causeway – and drove across in just under 3 feet of water. Next morning we did too.
The Rangers had camped in a clearing across the other side and when we arrived we got into a long talk about lots of stuff. One of them whose name I remember as “Brownie” was talking about river heights and flowing water. At one point he said something that struck me as really profound.
“People think that all this water is because of this year’s rain. Actually most of this water is from last year’s rain. The rocks around here are laterites. They have iron in them. Over the years the iron rusts out and the rock is like a giant porous sponge. In really wet years it’s a giant water storage and it’s still flowing strongly years later”.
It was something like that. And I thought: “Fred, there’s a Pentecost sermon right there. We think we’re going to flow with the Spirit right now because the Spirit’s been rained on us right now. Actually the ‘flow” we have today – that capacity to give ourselves, and to give from ourselves, freely, joyously, generously, sacrificially, - comes from the Words of Jesus, his Kingdom and his Gospel, which have been placed in us and found a place in us in the years before this day”.
That’s what I thought then. I still think it. Jesus used a different idea, making the identical point, when he said that the oil in our lamps today is oil we put in there yesterday, and had in reserve even before that. We give from the fullness of the Spirit’s rain because the Spirit’s had an opportunity to fill us. We share and love from the storehouse our Lord created in us and which we allow him to fill. It’s the only way to survive those long, lean, desolate and dry periods which inevitably come.
So how to be like laterite rocks and soils? Only one way! Live humbly before our Lord, deliberately saying no to human self serving, self protective ways of building ourselves up. Placing ourselves, emptying ourselves, before him so that the gospel word gets to fill up a hungry and thirsty heart.
Bless You
Fred
There’s lots to tell about that trip but I want to tell you about one small episode. (If you’ve heard this before forgive me – I’m never really sure when I’m picking up an item a second time). Driving up on the Gibb River Road – rough as guts, and washed away in many places – we arrived one afternoon at the King Edward River which was in flood. We wanted to cross over because that was the way to the Mitchell Plateau and Mitchell Falls. However, the just visible aerial of a 4WD that got washed off the crossing was fair warning.
Not long after we set up tents a couple of Rangers rocked up in their 4WD – contemplated for a while – tested water depth by walking across – cleared the biggest rocks off the causeway – and drove across in just under 3 feet of water. Next morning we did too.
The Rangers had camped in a clearing across the other side and when we arrived we got into a long talk about lots of stuff. One of them whose name I remember as “Brownie” was talking about river heights and flowing water. At one point he said something that struck me as really profound.
“People think that all this water is because of this year’s rain. Actually most of this water is from last year’s rain. The rocks around here are laterites. They have iron in them. Over the years the iron rusts out and the rock is like a giant porous sponge. In really wet years it’s a giant water storage and it’s still flowing strongly years later”.
It was something like that. And I thought: “Fred, there’s a Pentecost sermon right there. We think we’re going to flow with the Spirit right now because the Spirit’s been rained on us right now. Actually the ‘flow” we have today – that capacity to give ourselves, and to give from ourselves, freely, joyously, generously, sacrificially, - comes from the Words of Jesus, his Kingdom and his Gospel, which have been placed in us and found a place in us in the years before this day”.
That’s what I thought then. I still think it. Jesus used a different idea, making the identical point, when he said that the oil in our lamps today is oil we put in there yesterday, and had in reserve even before that. We give from the fullness of the Spirit’s rain because the Spirit’s had an opportunity to fill us. We share and love from the storehouse our Lord created in us and which we allow him to fill. It’s the only way to survive those long, lean, desolate and dry periods which inevitably come.
So how to be like laterite rocks and soils? Only one way! Live humbly before our Lord, deliberately saying no to human self serving, self protective ways of building ourselves up. Placing ourselves, emptying ourselves, before him so that the gospel word gets to fill up a hungry and thirsty heart.
Bless You
Fred
posted by PastorFredVeerhuis at 11:10 AM
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