"Look, Howard," I remarked to my husband as we drove in the driveway. "That dove has been sitting on that high line wire in the same spot for days!" It was true. Every time I looked, there it was, in the self-same spot with no other doves in sight anywhere.
Then today, as I stepped out on the porch, the line was empty. "I wonder what happened to the dove?" I mused to my spouse, the porch sitter. Just then the dove flew in and alighted onto its regular perch.
Thinking about the dove reminded me of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 3:16 says, "When he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him."
It made me think about the flood when Noah released first a raven, then a dove to see if the waters had receded. Genesis 8:11, "Then the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth."
Maybe our dove was watching over us? In this new location of mountains, hills and valleys where the scenery is breathtaking, but the roads are like roller coasters?
My husband related something our son-in-law, the naturalist, told him. It seems Steve was propagating a branch of something, and he explained to Howard that the branch could be kept in water and would live, but it would not produce fruit. Only if it developed roots could it reproduce.
I reflected on this and thought how our roots need to grow deeply in Christ if we are to lead others into the Kingdom. A shallow, watered-down testimony may be rootless and ineffective! We must remain full of the water of the Word and the Holy Spirit of the sweet, heavenly Dove!
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