I read a book this summer about a woman who traveled to Alaska to find peace following the tragic deaths of her father and stepmother. She wrote that she wanted the Alaskan landscape to “saturate my eyes and my soul”. (North of Hope by Shannon Huffman Paulson)

I could relate.

Not about the Alaska part, although one of my dreams is to visit there someday. But as I was reading that particular chapter, I was sitting at the edge of Lake Ontario, with the breeze blowing, the sun sparkling on the water, the waves gently lapping at my feet, sailboats tacking across in front of me, and the sound of my nephew playing in the sand and rocks on the shore.

I wanted to drink it in. To somehow preserve it and let it become a part of me and let it saturate my eyes and my soul.

I think God put that desire in our hearts – to experience the beauty of His creation, to let it draw us closer to Him, to sense His majesty in the majesty of the landscape. Just read some of the Psalms.

But can we be saturated with other things when vacation days and breathtaking landscapes are gone for another year?

What if I sat in church on Sunday and intentionally sought to saturate my soul with the glory and privilege of worship? What if, as I spent quiet time with God, I stopped to let the Word and His presence wash over me, filling me, saturating me with joy and peace and truth?

Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians was that they would be filled with the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:19)

Sounds like saturation to me.

When I think back to that moment on the water this summer, I’ll let it remind me not only of an amazing vacation day, but of being blessed and filled with the fullness of God.

Saturated.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6

For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring; Isaiah 44:3