Advent Devotional Day 6

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” John 7:38

Back in the eighties while I was teaching high school music, I had an exceptionally shy clarinet player in the band named Dan. His playing ability was a bit limited, but I worked with him patiently, like any teacher would with any student, regardless of whether they are musically or academically gifted. However, this boy was painfully withdrawn and spoke only when necessary and then in a mere whisper.

Fast forward fifteen years. Our family moved to Houghton where I began teaching at the college. As my wife and I searched for our new church home, we learned of a local congregation that, curiously, had a senior pastor with the same first and last name as that timid clarinet player. Coincidentally (or not), only a few days later, I received a surprise phone call from that very pastor and learned that he was indeed the same student I had once taught many years before. To my further astonishment, he told me of the profound impact I had on his life during his high school years. Now an established minister of a growing congregation, Pastor Dan told me that the Holy Spirit had reached out to him through me. Noticing the Bible I kept on my school desk, he knew I was a Christian. The Lord began working in him and he ultimately received Christ. My jaw dropped. I was speechless. I had absolutely no idea I had played any role in his salvation whatsoever and was totally blown away.

Jesus spoke of the blessings that will FLOW OUT of us through the Holy Spirit into others when we totally abandon our lives to Him. Oswald Chambers once wrote that, “God rarely allows a soul to see how great a blessing he is (to others).” In that way, WE can’t take any credit for it!

As we approach Christmas, let’s remember that this miraculous moving of the Spirit through us into the lives of others would not happen if Jesus had never been born in that lonely stable two thousand years ago.

Dear Lord, please work in and through us so that we can serve as vessels from which Your “living waters” will flow into the lives of those You place in our path. ~Gary Stith