Greetings Dear Reader,
My Grandfather’s farm obtained its water from a spring that
flowed out of the side the mountain that was part of the farm. A pipe carried the water to the house and
there was a tap on the pipe where one could get a drink at any time. On hot afternoons I would drink long and splash
the cold water on my face.
The water from the spring also flowed through the farm’s old
springhouse. This was used to keep
things cool before electricity and refrigeration. On the hottest days, I would sit in the spring
house taking in the cool of the stone and water. There was a granite shelf that I used as a
seat. It was where butter was kept when
the Springhouse was used for preserving food.
I called it the butter bench. Often my Grandfather would join me with a pair
of Nehi Grape sodas. We would sit in the
spring house and talk for a bit.
As a boy, I was fascinated that the spring flowed no matter
how dry the weather. Even during the barren
summer when I was seven the stream never ceased to flow with its cool
plenty. Into the granite stone walls
that formed that spring house was etched Plenty’s horn. Sitting there with my Grandfather on an
August afternoon was where I learned about it and how it symbolizes the plenty
that we have. He explained that his
father had carved it there to remind us to be thankful for the water and the
coolness it always provides.
One afternoon when I was angry at my boyhood friend Russel,
my Grandfather found me in the spring house brooding. He sat next to me on the butter bench and passed
me a Nehi Grape. He gently coaxed out of
me the reason for my anger with Russel.
Then he pointed to his father’s carving in the wall.
“One of the things we get to do,” he began, “is to choose to
give away the things we can never lose.
We are given the ability to love by God and he is like this stream. His love can flow through us forever without
growing any weaker or diminishing in any way.”
That was the first time I recall someone explaining to me
that we can love without any need to believe we will run out of love. Like Plenty’s horn, we can give our love to
others in abundance and never risk having less to give. Our command to have love as the foundation
for all we do proceeds from the provision of the Father for love to be always available
to us and through us.
It is our privilege to pass the love of the Father on to
others without reservation. The flow can
be constant as that spring. It can be
refreshing, free, and useful in the lives of others. It can be a refuge and a restful place if we
allow it. The stream comes from the Father
and he wishes for us to make it the motivation for all we think, say, and do in
life. That, Dear Reader, is the abundance
that we must share with the entire world.
It is what we can give as the foundation for all other things. It is the basis for all the other things that
we have in abundance and is necessary to them all.
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every
writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a
homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure
store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Contacts for Aramis
Thorn:
Bookings: aramisthorn@aramisthorn.com
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