Dear friends, do you know how much of you is water? Scientists say it's 75% - ¾ of your entire body is water, H₂O. I guess there's some truth when people call us a "drip" or else say we're a wet blanket at the party! With the recent snow melt, we're just now beginning to get back to a normal winter, and we're seeing water flowing the streets again. Water is crucial to our lives. The human body can last weeks without food, but only days without water. Water is the basis of blood and all our internal fluids. 73% of muscle tissue (including our brain) is water. 25% of body fat is water. Even 22% of those solid-looking bones is water.

         Water is needed in the body to do just about everything, and when we don't have enough, or if the body can't process water as it should, it's an awful thing to behold. We simply, totally and completely, must have water, or we die. Remember that next time you have a drink of water, or it snows or rains too much, or the next time we have a genuine drought, not the one they keep telling us is coming, but never shows up. Water is necessary for all of human life.

         The necessity of water is what's behind God's Word today from the prophet Jeremiah. Two kinds of living you can have, he says. Dry, dry living, where you are as good as dead, where everything around you is a wasteland, a dusty, salty desert with plants shriveled up, so dry you're not sure if plants are dead or alive.

         You and I can live like that, dry and parched. Or we can get near the water, the cool, clear water, pure water. And not just any water, but the Water of Life, Jesus Christ our Lord. With Him we will grow like a healthy tree, our roots running deep down into the Divine Aquifer of God that won't run out, no matter how hot or dry it gets. With our roots sunk in Christ, our leaves are green, our fruit is good, and we are alive, really alive!

         So, two kinds of living, and all depends on whom you trust. Jeremiah says, "Blessed is the One Who Trusts in the Lord" Jesus asked, "Are you thirsty?" Then come and drink. Rivers of living water will brim up and spill out of the deepest places of anyone who trusts in Jesus Christ. Again, Jeremiah says, "Blessed is the One Who Trusts in the Lord"

         It was 1963, the summer I left for college. My friend Woody Larson had called Harley Johnson and me to come over to his dad's farm a few miles away. His neighbor had been digging a water pond with a bulldozer and found something amazing. When we got there, we saw a hole 30 feet deep that was roped off, and they told us a team of scientists from the University was there examining things in the hole. It was an ancient grove of cedar trees, buried by the last glacier some 10,000 years ago. The ropes were there to keep us out, but we came back later that night with flashlights. The old trees were laid flat, all pointing south, apparently frozen as the glacier melted and slid over them and sealed them in clay so they wouldn't decay. In the clay were millions of tiny snail shells, and it smelled awful. As we left, I picked up a piece of wood, took it home, washed and dried it, and sometime later sawed it in half. And it still gave off that rich cedar smell in the core. 10,000 years old, yet preserved well enough to cut and smell fresh. Years later I gave the wood to my artist brother Bill who made me a letter opener with the handle of that old, old cedar. I still use it most every day and always think of how old it is. We call the letter opener "Methuselah".

         Jeremiah was an old man when he wrote the words of this text. He had been called to serve God while still a teenager, and he was told by the Lord not to marry and raise a family. The reason, God said, was because the coming generation would be swept away in judgment, and God wanted to spare him. So Jeremiah lived most of life as a man alone, a prophet of doom and gloom, with few friends as he spoke God's judgment in ways that it made him very unpopular. Speaking the truth of God's Word often isolates people. God's Word is not based on the polls. God doesn't care if His truth is popular or not. It's still the truth, no matter what.

         Jeremiah's name means, "The Lord throws," as in throwing God's Word to people. His faithful secretary Baruch spent years with him, writing down all Jeremiah tossed at him. Jeremiah is often called the "weeping prophet," but his life wasn't always unhappy. For a time he was the close friend and confident of good king Josiah who tried bringing the Jews back to God. But Josiah never realized his ambition of leading a faithful people, because he was killed by the Egyptian army near Megiddo in northern Israel. After that, for Jeremiah things rapidly went downhill.

         In the following years, Jeremiah and Baruch were exiled to Egypt, and their sadness was increased by their longing to go back home. Kings of old times most always exiled some of the conquered people from their land. It was a good way to bring talent and intelligence into the land, as well as neutralize the remaining people from rebelling. Right after Josiah died, however, Egypt was conquered by King Nebuchadnezzar. So, instead of being exiled in Egypt, Jeremiah went to Babylon. But not before Jewish kings started turning away from God.

         The kings who followed Josiah were unfaithful. King Jehohahaz was weak and soon imprisoned. King Jehoikim turned his back on God. He disliked and resisted Jeremiah's word from God so much that he once cut up the prophet's scroll and burned it in his firepot to keep warm. King Zedekiah talked out of both sides of his mouth, and imprisoned and tortured all who spoke against him, including Jeremiah. It was not a good time to be a prophet in Israel.

         So Jeremiah lashed out with God's truth. Chapter 17 is a warning not to trust in the strength of mortal man. If you do, God said, you will be like a bush in the desert, barely alive with little water, with dust in your mouth, always close to death. That's what His people had become. They had forsaken their trust in God and trusted human power, human weapons and human strength. And it got them into trouble, once again exiled in a foreign land.

         But, said Jeremiah, despite any former sins, "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him." Blessed is the one who trust in God! Blessed is the one who does not turn his back on God. He will always be strong, he will ever be nourished. Life will not be perfect; it will still have its troubles. But when drought comes or the hot sun scorches the earth, that person will not be afraid, will always bear fruit, and even prosper.

         "Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord." That's a good memory verse. (Let's say it together, "Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord!") The text doesn't say we will have no troubles. But when trouble comes, we will more than survive in the desert of life. We will even flourish! The heat, drought, fruitlessness will not destroy us, for Christ, the Water of life to help us in all our needs. "Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him."

         Maybe you've read about Ryan Miller, Columbine High School football phenom who signed on to play with the CU Buffalos this past week. I met Ryan when he was in First Grade, a strawberry blond little fellow with a big grim. His parents were faithful, cheerful members of my former church, and after I left, I heard now and then what a good athlete Ryan was, big, strong and talented. I missed teaching him in Confirmation, but our paths have crossed now and then. Today little Ryan is 6'8" tall, weighs 310 lbs., and is probably the best offensive lineman to come from a Colorado high school. He was courted by hundreds of Universities to play for them. And every time I've seen him, he has a big smile and once even gave me a hug, though people nearly get lost in his arms today. He's a gentle giant, a gifted young Christian who lets his faith shine in all he does. Everyone who knows him sees his humble heart first, then his giant size. Ryan is a young man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.

         You don't have to be a giant to trust in the Lord. In fact, it might be tempting to trust in yourself if you're 6'8" and 310 lbs! I doubt Ryan has to worry today about any local bullies pushing him around. But no matter how big or strong or talented or smart or pretty or rich, you and I all need to trust in the Lord every day, to put our confidence in Him.

         American tabloid readers lost someone this past week who was beautiful and rich (and quite intelligent and also very big). But despite all she had, Anna Nicole Smith was still mortal, as we all are. There is no one who should want to live in the desert, apart from the Living Water of Jesus. The desert can be unforgiving and harsh. But our Lord Jesus Christ is always forgiving and gentle with us. He died to forgive our sins, and all who trust in Him, no matter what our past might be like, are given eternal life. Faith in Jesus brings us to springs to pure water.

         We certainly do find out what becomes valuable to us in time. This winter I've been enclosing our covered patio into an additional room on our house. And it's been fun, though tiring on soft, old arms and legs and back. Then came news last week that Carol and I will become grandparents again! Chuck and Debbie have been chosen to receive a newborn baby girl sometime in April, God willing. Micah's going to be a big brother. This is already quite a year - new addition, new grandchild, retirement, and maybe even other family blessings - who knows?

         "Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him." May each of us here today trust in the Lord for all things. May we join Jeremiah and all the saints before the throne of God in eternal glory, amen.

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