Is Your Terrace Active or Dry?


Minerva Spring is a favorite for Yellowstone visitors not only because of its wide range of bright colors but also for its ornate travertine formations. Since the 1890s, when records were first kept on the activity of Mammoth Hot Springs, Minerva has gone through both active and inactive periods. For several years in the early 1900s, it was completely dry, but by 1951 Minerva was again active.

During some cycles of activity, water discharge and mineral deposits have been so great that boardwalks have been buried beneath mounds of newly deposited travertine. In recent years, hot spring activity has shifted dramatically from Minerva to other features on the Lower Terraces, and back again.

Just like Minerva Terrace, our spiritual lives can be both dry or flourishing. We enthusiastically embrace those seasons when God is working in and around us. We celebrate as others benefit from God's spring of living water pouring out from us. But then there are those dry spells when we wonder if God even knows our name; when we pray it's as if we are talking to ourselves. Have you experienced those times?

King David knew what it was like to be parched and to praise. He had flourished and failed. He knew what it was like to be thirsty and to be quenched. Examine his prayer to God...

You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. (Psalm 63:1-3)

He was both in a literal and spiritual desert when he penned this prayer. He did not wish to remain there because He knew what he was missing. Have you tasted of the refreshing waters of life made available by Jesus Christ? If not, He desires to satisfy your thirsty soul. Go to Him and drink freely.

Jesus said, "Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:14) 

Is your terrace active or dry?

Minerva Terrace
Mammoth Hot Springs
Yellowstone National Park

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