When I was still at home in my latter teen years, my father decided to have a
pond built that would sit almost directly behind our two car garage with
accompanying horse stalls. I marveled as the bulldozers scraped out a fairly deep
hole and piling the dirt to enable the eventual waters that would gather to be held
in place. Loads of large rocks were hauled in to line the upper edge of the pond.
Downspouts from the nearby house and the garage were rerouted to help replenish
the water supply. At least one natural spring was discovered.
It took at least a year of rain and snow to fill the pond. After a year or two,
my father had the pond stocked with blue gill and bass. Even though I was in my
latter teen years, I was like most boys. I loved to occasionally pick up a stone and
toss it into the pond.
I marveled at the ripples that moved toward the shore after that stone had
struck the water. Picture those ripples for a moment. Imagine that you are like
that ripple edging farther and farther away from where it was created. As it
touches the shore there may be a bit of a splash and in this case, the plants, the
insects, the frogs experience something that I started simply by tossing a rock into
the pond.
Our Lord touches our lives and we become the ripples that reach out to touch
another’s life. Prayerfully, consider the many wonderful ways and opportunities
that our Lord opens to us as a part of First Christian Church. You see, First
Christian is like that pond.
