Just One Word - Resource

Resource

Lora Parsons

The Ashland Beacon

A natural resource, in terms of a 6th grade Social Studies definition, is a substance that exists in nature that people use to live or make things.  Some examples would be the air we breathe, the soil we use to grow crops, and water that hydrates all living things.  A breath in for us is followed by another breath out, repeating that pattern over and over from the moment we’re born until we pass into eternity.  We till the ground and plant seeds in it during the spring of the year in order to grow crops for harvest during the fall, season after season after season.  The water that we take into our bodies is filtered out to all the parts that need it until the time comes that we need another drink to satisfy a new thirst.  Cycles in nature are found everywhere.  The food chain, birth and death, the water cycle, phases of the moon, ripples in a disturbed pond.  Nature is full of evidence of the temporary things in life that are going to run out.  Our breath will cease someday, our hearts will stop beating, and our physical bodies will fade into silence. The land stops yielding as abundantly as it once did, often leading farmers to rotate their crops’ locations.  And water leaves our bodies or is used by them so that we have to replenish it frequently, especially when it’s hot or we’re expending a lot of energy.  Natural resources are critical for our wellbeing and in many cases our very survival, but they’re temporary at best.

A REsource is a source that has to be visited again and again.  Breathing is perpetual.  Farming is seasonal.  Thirst is inevitable.  Our great supply of natural resources—precious gifts from God to us—still are things we have to REturn to when the supply runs low.  We have to go back again to get a refill.

  But Jesus is THE source, not a REsource.  He’s the only thing we need; not just one of the many things we need.  Our physical survival is guaranteed only by resources that we have to return to over and over again.  Our spiritual survival is the result of one birth, one life, one love, one death, on one cross, one resurrection, one God. One Source.  He is all we’ll ever need—even when our breath ceases, even when the land fails to yield, and even when all the water on Earth’s surface dries up.  We don’t need a REsource.  We need THE source!  Psalm 36:9 says: “You are the source of all life, and because of your light we see the light.”  Thank you, Jesus, for being the only true Source we need!