Overflowing

Sometimes my heart is overflowing. Right now we are in Colorado visiting friends and family and my heart is overflowing with memories. Since we raised our family in this beautiful area, it’s always special to come “home” to our favorite state. Our daughter and family all live here now. So the number of relatives living in Colorado is increasing. And that makes my heart happy because we have more and more opportunities to visit.

Earlier this week we visited friends in the mountains. Oh, how my heart overflowed with an appreciation for God’s beautiful creation. We enjoyed sitting by the mountain stream that runs by their lovely home and breathing in the clear mountain air. And we always enjoy reminiscing with long-time friends.

We visited the church where my husband grew up and was blessed by all the memories of the strong nurturing that occurred there. Our family has sung there many times over the years, and we were privileged to sing once more before the church closes. It’s bittersweet, but our hearts are full to overflowing.

God pours out the blessings. We get filled up and the overflow spills out to others. Right now, we are becoming part of a new church plant near our home in Kansas. Can you guess what the name of the church is? It’s Overflow Church in Martin City, Missouri. It is the goal of the congregation that the overflowing love of Christ will spill out through them into the community.

Just because you may not be in a beautiful place like the Colorado mountains or be with wonderful family members just now doesn’t mean that you can’t overflow with gratitude. We are overwhelmingly loved by God. As Paul says in Romans 8:38-39, “I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” As incredible as that seems, it’s true. Doesn’t that fill you to the point of overflowing?

What flows from your heart today? Oh, I hope it’s not anger or bitterness. That’s deadly. How sad to let that overflow to those around us. On the contrary, Jesus spoke of what should flow from our hearts when He said, “If any man is thirsty, he can come to me and drink! The man who believes in me, as the scripture says, will have rivers of living water flowing from his inmost heart” (John 7:38, J. B. Phillips).

So what does your overflow consist of at this moment?

“The Soft Winds of Summer” from “God and Us”