As I was working on my sermon this week, I reflected on the way the Lord desires to bless us and meet all of our needs.  I love the verse John 10:10 where Jesus says, “I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly.”  Other translations say, “…life to the full.”  Jesus is indeed the Good Shepherd who can be trusted to take care of us and meet all of our needs.  And yet so many times, we look only to the world and the people in it to meet all of our deepest needs.  When we do that, we are asking something from the world and from others that they are not designed to do.

I remember many years ago when motion detectors first began to be used on bathroom sinks.  I was in a restaurant and I wanted to wash my hands before I ate.  So, I went to the restroom to wash my hands.  As I stood in front of the sink, I was perplexed.  There was just a spigot and there weren’t any handles to turn the water on.  I looked at that sink for a minute and scratched my head because I couldn’t figure out how to turn on the water.  So, I leaned in to take a closer look thinking I would see a button or something to push or a lever to pull.  When I leaned in and put my face real close, I set off the motion detector and the water came on.  I jumped back and it stopped.  I leaned in again and it started again.  I finally figured it out.  There was a motion detector on the sink and it was designed to turn on whenever you put your hands near it.  Today, sinks with motion detectors are everywhere.  A while back I went into a different restaurant to wash my hands and I put my hands under the sink and nothing happened.  I started waving my hands in the sink and still nothing happened.  So, I moved them faster.  Still nothing, so I moved to the next sink.  I moved my hands but it didn’t work either!  But I kept doing it.  I kept waving my hands under that sink thinking that eventually it would give me some water.  I finally figured it out.  Those sinks didn’t work because there was no motion detector; you had to turn on the handle.  I was expecting something from those sinks they were not designed to do.

And we do that with the world and the people in it.  We look to others to perfectly love us, to perfectly care for us and to perfectly care about us.  And we have been let down because we have looked to this world and the people in it to meet all of our needs, and that is something that they are not designed to do.  But still, we keep moving our hands, looking for water.  And we move from sink to sink and never get what we need.  Jesus, says, “Come to Me, I will meet your needs.  Come to Me, I will give you living water.  I will give you life and life more abundantly.”  It’s true.  We can trust the Lord to meet all of our needs.  We can trust Him to give us life to the full.  We can trust Him to perfectly love us, to perfectly care for us and to perfectly care about us.  I pray that you will let the Lord meet your needs this week.  I pray that you will experience the abundant life that only Christ can give, life to the full.