The Garden Hose

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I heard a preacher yesterday mention a garden hose as an analogy in a sermon.  Immediately I thought of our garden hose on the side of our house. 


I have to admit, my use of the garden hose is limited to connecting it to the "slip-n-slide" for my grandchildren.  Apart from my tiny flower bed in the front of the house, I don't do much outdoor work.  A severe allergy to fire ants as well as an allergy to grass (imagine that, allergic to grass of all things!) kept me from my own yard for many years.  Finally, months of allergy shots allowed me to step outside without fear of anaphylatic shock.  Still, I have not cultivated those garden habits which many home-owners develop and don't have much of a love for gardens, flower beds or yards. 

I do know, though, that the hose has to be stretched to be utilized.  Coiled up on it's holder, it is essentially useless until the hose is stretched out.  I know that many people don't have kinks in their garden hose, but our hose has to have the kinks pulled out as well before the full water pressure can be felt at the nozzle.  I like to have that full water pressure, especially when using the hose to play with my grandchildren.

Sometimes the Lord has to stretch us out and "pull the kinks" out of us as well.  Over the years, we can develop wrong thinking about things or we can develop habits that are not in the best interest of our walk with Him.  The Lord has to stretch us so that we are willing to change that thinking or give up those habits.  I am one that does not like change unless I institute it, so sometimes He has to really pull on my "kinks" to make me useful in the way He desires me to be. 

The point is, the more pliable we are to His stretching, His pulling and His pointing of our nozzle, the more useful we will be to His purpose, which is really what we want, isn't it?  The bottom line is not about us, it is about Him and His eternal purpose in Christ Jesus.  So for His water to flow through me at the greatest pressure possible, I must submit to the stretching and pulling of me, the hose.

It is a wonderful thing to know that we have a Lord with whom we can be perfectly confident, and perfectly trustful when we submit ourselves unto Him.  His burden is easy and His yoke is light and He promises us rest.  He is abundantly more than we could ever ask or think.

"But now, O LORD, Thou art our Father; 

we are the clay, and Thou our potter; 

and we all are the work of Thy hand." 

Isaiah 64:8