thirsty? [thoughts on Isaiah 55]

Three times in the same week I was tasked with turning the compost while wwoofing. The work was simple: there were three boxes and two had compost in them. My job was to move each pile to an empty box because air and mixing would help with decomposition.

The first time I did it, though, it took 2 1/2 hours because the piles were so dry! It was dusty and moldy, with bits slipping through the garden fork I was using. I used a hose and later and sprinkler head to water the piles in a rotating pattern as I shoveled. After what I thought was an adequate amount of water over one spot, I would move the sprinkler to another area to only find that the water had barely penetrated the surface. This made me wonder: how much water is necessary for a 1 metre tall pile?!

Isaiah 55:10-11 came to mind (in the 1984 NIv),

"As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth, making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth, it will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."

I've always loved that promise of things growing as the rain falls, but had never thought about how plants and crops need huge amounts of water for that to happen. No wonder the start of Isaiah 55 begins with God asking us if we're thirsty and inviting us to come to him to drink.

By the third day I turned the compost, I didn't have to water it at all - the water from the previous days had soaked in. What a beautiful analogy.