The Scent of Water

Job 14 now includes imagery about hope, At least there is hope for a tree:  If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.  Its roots may grow old in the ground

and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant.

We have a stump of a tree in our back yard that died.  It died.  We cut it down.  And all that’s left is a stump.  No life is going to come out of that tree that died.

However, we have other trees that we cut back each year, back to bare branches, and they return. 

“At the scent of water” their leaves appear.

Who knew water had a scent?  And isn’t it amazing what water can do to a plant that’s shriveled up?

Trees do die.  But there’s a verse in Psalm that says if a tree is planted by the water, it’s leaf will not wither and it will die.  Trees that stop drinking die.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never put a glass of water up to my nose to sniff it because it’s neutral – no smell at all.  However, when a dying plant or person gets anywhere near hope (the water) they will run to it and drink it up like a thirsty man in a desert, until they are refreshed, renewed, and able to rise and walk…out of the desert.

We may feel we are at a place where we are cut down and left to die.  But God has promised to never leave us.  See if you can lift your face and catch the scent of water nearby.

And then drink…to your heart’s content.