Frozen Pipes

We were in the middle of the deep freeze that held those of us in the South hostage for what seemed like an eternity. My sister, who lives in the middle of the woods somewhere in East Tennessee, called to tell me that her pipes had frozen. She had no water. That means no...um...."facilities". I knew that night why God had given her a man-child. My sister and I have been known to "hold" our need to use a "facility" for HOURS because the one in front of us is unacceptable. You think I'm kidding. Ask my parents how many road trips we would beg to stop, only to get back in the car because the "facility" smelled. (Or as my oldest would say, "had an offensive odor".)

Back to her frozen pipes.

After several days of investigation by herself, her man-friend, the plumber and the water company, they discovered the problem was the water pipe that runs from the edge of her driveway TO her house. NOT, praise you Jesus, the pipes in her home!!

Apparently, the family that lives at the edge of her driveway (her home sits WAY off the road) had done some landscaping last summer. Part of that included uncovering her waterline. When they covered the line back up, they just pushed the gravel back on top. No dirt. Just about 8 inches of gravel. Any dummy can see why those pipes froze, they were not buried deep enough in the ground to sustain the freezing temperatures!

Last night as I was trying to go to sleep, I was thinking about how that is such a picture of our lives. Sometimes we are hit with unexpected deep freeze (crisis, job loss, health issue, relationship turmoil....). The more deeply grounded we are in God's Word will dictate our reaction to the freeze.

For my sister her pipes were frozen for 15 days! 15 days without water in her home. (Thank goodness she was traveling for work a good bit!) It was 15 days before conditions were right to replace the damaged pipes and then bury them DEEP in the ground. There was a process that had to happen before the old pipe was removed and the new pipe installed and buried.

Each "freeze" that comes into our life is an opportunity. An invitation to go a little deeper with the Lord. To become a little more grounded. To have the old, cracked and worn out parts removed and replaced with new, healthy, whole parts. Whole parts that can be used to do the thing God planned for them to do!

Again, it's that process of removing what He can't use and replacing it with what He can.

The last year has had it's share of "freezes", and God has been so tender and faithful during the process. I know that we aren't done and until I see Him face to face, I will still be a work in process.

Philippians 3:20-21

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.