There are places where green grass grows, even in the dead of winter.
One such place is where Pastor Josh and his family recently went on vacation. Spring Mill State Park in southern Indiana contains the Cave River Valley.
As Josh and his family hiked through the valley in early March, at a time of year when the air temperature was dropping as low as 10 degrees, they couldn't miss the lush, green grass growing along the riverbank. Everything else was covered in snow.
What makes this possible is the year-round water temperature of 55 degrees. This water is kept warm in the winter (and cool in the summer) by the earth itself. It comes from deep in the caves that give the valley its name. It never freezes over.
Life abounds near this water in every season.
It reminded Josh about one time (of many) when Jesus spoke of water. In John, chapter 7, Jesus is teaching at the Festival of Tabernacles. It was - and remains to this day - a time when the Jews celebrated God's provision for them after their liberation from Egypt, when they were in the wilderness.
On the last day of the festival, the priest would pour out what was called a drink offering. As Josh explained, this could have been wine or perhaps oil, something special to signify the Lord is a faithful provider for his children. He quenches our thirst.
Jesus chose that moment to rise, likely on a stone to stand above the crowd, and say in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (verses 37-38)
The first part of that statement means life, for you. The Holy Spirit is like a river that never stops flowing, even in the dead of winter. You are like the grass that can grow near him. Even in the dead of winter.
The second part means life for those around you. Living water, the Holy Spirit within you, is not meant for your benefit alone. Why else would rivers of living water flow from within you?
This is what Paul was getting at in one of his letters to the church in Thessalonica. "Do not quench the Spirit," he told them (1 Thessalonians 5:19). This was in the context of instructions to encourage one another, live in peace and be patient with one other, and to continually give thanks for all God has done for them (verses 12-18).
In other words, we are not to quench our own thirst. We're not even to try to use the Holy Spirit to do it. Just as the water doesn't flow only for the benefit of the river, the Holy Spirit does not flow in us only for ourselves. We are called to allow the Holy Spirit to pour through us and into others.
Jesus challenges you to trust him. To trust that the source of warm, living water will not run dry. That both the power and the freedom to be a blessing to others is within you, because the Holy Spirit will continue to care for you as you give God's blessings away.
Unlike the river, we have free will. We can choose the alternative. We can "quench the spirit" by trying to hold it in. We can let the grass around us go cold; let the people around us go without the encouragement, peace, gratitude and joy we could offer them.
If we do that, we might find we go cold after a time as well.
Jesus gives us no middle ground. The Holy Spirit is not to be contained. It is not to stop with us, to be quenched within us. To fully experience life, we must offer it to others.
That is how grass thrives in winter. That is how we all can thrive in Jesus.