I watched the eruption of the world’s largest geyser today. YouTube is amazing, and what’s more amazing is thinking of this incredible force that drives a million gallons of water 300 feet into the air. People on the ground say that they can actually feel the low rumbling of the steam in their chest as the water rises in the sky.

There’s a question that you rarely see asked, that I couldn’t even find the answer for via the ubiquitous Google search: where does the water go? I mean, a million gallons of water has been thrown up into the air, where does it go? The obvious answer is that it falls on the ground all around the geyser, where it forms little rivulets of running water, making the ground all around the geyser wet.

The reason the answer doesn’t show up in searches is that people are way more interested (and rightly so) in the geyser. No one comes to look at small rivulets. They all are amazed and astonished at the power and wonder of the geyser.

I wish we were more that way about our Savior. It is so easy to focus in on how I’m doing and how other people are doing. What fruit are they producing? Are they actively living out the Christian life? What are we working on, what are we doing, what are we achieving? We take Jesus for granted, we’ve heard about him all our lives; and besides, what we do is what’s important. Right?

We focus in on the branches and forget the incredible, awe-inspiring vine. We look at the little water rivulets and take our eyes off of the million-gallon wonder.

The wonder is that God became a man, and he suffered and died for us. And he rose from the dead, and promises we will too, simply by trusting him.

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” John 7:38).

See, we’ll participate in the most incredible event ever… rivers of living water will flow from us. But it won’t be our water. It will be the living water of the Spirit, bursting forth from the most incredible event ever.

It is something of a paradox, that our work is actually to keep our eyes on the marvel of the geyser, and not to be so distracted by ourselves. “This is the work of God, to believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:29). I need to trust in the geyser, that water will be delivered, and the water isn’t produced by me, but is a result of the power and strength of someone else.

Jesus isn’t just the headwater of our faith, like a roaring stream has a little tributary that starts it off. Jesus is the geyser, and he gets us wet. He’s the force and the power. The Holy Spirit is our comforter, reminding us of all that he’s done and all that he’s promised. We have life if he gets us wet – his righteousness is ours, we don’t have any of our own.

The Christian life is dependent entirely on the massive geyser of what God has done. May we never cease to marvel. May we never cease to praise. May we not focus on the tiny rivulets of our own stream, when the wonder is the love of God expressed incredibly in his Son.