“Oops, I blew out the vein.” The phlebotomist at the blood
bank had just inserted a needle in a vein in the crook of my right arm.
“What does that mean?” I was feeling a bit of pain, but that phrase sounded worse than I felt.
“Oh, I just mean your vein won’t receive the needle and the
blood immediately clotted. Have you had trouble giving blood before?”
“No. But maybe I didn’t drink enough water today. I just
remembered an hour ago that I meant to pick up my husband after work to come give
blood. I only drank a couple of glasses of water since I remembered.” I smiled,
raising my eyebrows.
She agreed that was probably the problem, especially after
she bruised my left arm, too. I learned my lesson. Previously I’d prepared all
day to give blood by drinking several glasses of extra fluid.
A couple of days later, I thought, that’s a metaphor. Like I
don’t always drink enough of the Holy Spirit before I try to minister to
others. Paul says, in 1Corinthians
“For we were all baptized by one Spirit
into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given
the one Spirit to drink.” (12:13,NIV)
My ability to bless others is directly proportional to my ingestion of the water of the Holy Spirit.
When we wish to give a pint of blessing rather than just a drop, we must be full of the water of the Holy Spirit.
Don’t we tend to forget our dependence? I do. For those of
us who respond to images, perhaps the image of veins with only enough blood for
myself but not enough to give, will help remind us to drink our daily measure
of the essential water of the Spirit.
Dear Holy Spirit, may we thirst for you.