Here is a pretty winter scene. The ground is covered with snow; the icebound pond will not allow the cattle to get water for themselves, so their kind owner is breaking the ice in order that they may drink.
Water is necessary to sustain the natural life both in man and in beast, without it we would soon die. Another kind of water, called in God’s Word, “living water,” and “the water of life,” is necessary to the spiritual life. Christ is its source; and it is He who gives it.
But alas! as the pond is frozen over and the water cannot be obtained witut breaking the ice, so the hearts of many people are often hard like ice, as it were, and the hard crust has to be broken through before the Word of God can get entrance. The crust of ice on the pond must be broken in order to get the water out; the crust of hardness and unbelief in people’s hearts both young and old must be broken in order to let the living water in.
The man takes a hammer and breaks the ice, and there is the water ready for the cattle to quench their thirst. But the crust that sometimes forms in people’s hearts is harder than ice—yes, as hard as rock; and how is it to be broken? God alone can break the crust; and in doing it He uses something that is like a hammer.
Ah! yes, it is God’s Word that does the work—that breaks the hard heart. When it gets entrance, the living waters spring up in the soul.
ML 12/31/1944