LOVE: HOW FAR IS TOO FAR?

"Maybe I went a little overboard," my husband confessed, peering into the 200-foot vast cavern a few steps from our cabin's front porch.

We'd dreamed of a small pond, but things got carried away. Ironically, the project mirrored real life.

Someone had shown up with an excavator and destroyed the beautiful view.

Our beloved nephew Taeler was dying, and there was nothing we could do. The unseen hole in our hearts was deeper than the canyon at our feet.

"How will we fill it?" I wondered. 

We had no power, no time, no hope, only questions. No bucket on earth could wash away the pain or make the emptiness disappear.

It seemed impossible until Taeler took a special interest in the pond project. "You'll figure it out," he said, believing God never leaves you dry. Some day, some way, somehow,  it would all make sense.

Like Hope, answers began to trickle in.

Electricity reached our remote location; we plugged into Faith and kept digging until Hope gushed out at 120 gallons a minute.

"Whoa! What're you gonna call it? White Lake?" Taeler laughed at pictures of the ridiculous dream taking shape before our eyes.

 My heart gazed through the muddy waters, seeing the bottom clear as day.

After all the digging and doubting about dying eternity exploded like a geyser within.

"Its name is' Redemption Pond,' I said, "because there's going to be baptisms." 

Life isn't about creating a temporary, pleasant view to enjoy. God created us for so much more, inviting us to go all in.

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink," Jesus said.*

We swim toward a watery grave in this world, but no one drowns in Living Water. Even as you go under, you're on your way up.

Buried with Him in death, raised to new life in Christ, you can walk on life's most treacherous sea.

"Looks like I'm not going to make it to the cabin." Taeler's heartbreaking reality led to a fascinating discovery about water.

Living Water seeks and travels to your lowest place.

You think you'll never witness Redemption. It's too far, too hard, too much.

So God's love plunges a thermos into Redemption's waters and races down the turnpike.

"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." 

Taeler was baptized in Redemption Pond on September 7, diving into Heaven's glory 5 days later.

Turns out that going overboard for Jesus is what life's all about.

*John 7:37