A slow drip

In her book Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus, Lois Tverberg retells the following story about a famous first century rabbi named Rabbi Akiva:

"One day as Rabbi Akiva was shepherding his flocks, he noticed a tiny stream trickling down a hillside, dripping over a ledge on its way toward the river below. Below was a massive boulder. Surprisingly, the rock bore a deep impression. The drip, drip, drip of water over the centuries had hollowed away the stone. Akiva commented, "If mere water can do this to hard rock, how much more can God's Word carve a way into my heart of flesh?" Akiva realized that if the water had flowed over the rock all at once, the rock would have been unchanged. It was the slow but steady impact of each small droplet, year after year, that completely reformed the stone."

I have often wondered why we need to keep meeting together for Worship Services every Sunday.  I have often wondered why I need to read the Bible over and over again every single day.  I have wondered why we need to take communion every single week.

I think we need to keep doing these things, because we simply cannot grasp the incredible sacrifice of Jesus in one moment.  We cannot grasp the great love that God has for us in just one moment.  We cannot grasp the life-changing teaching contained in the Bible in just one moment.  God cannot be understood in just one moment.

Much like the water slowly dripping on the rock and completely changing the form of the rock, we need to have patience to get to know God and His ways gradually or we would be so overwhelmed that we would drown in information.