“A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink…’ The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?..’ Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? [O]ur father Jacob gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.’ Jesus said, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ The woman said, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.’”
“On the last day of the feast,.. Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”’ Now this he said about the Spirit.” John 4:7,9-15; 7:37-39a
The beautiful paradox of Jesus’s invitation and promise melds immediate with continual with forever. His ask for a drink was the first drop of hope for this needy outcast, and his continued conversation a douse of cold water to her thirsty soul. The One who at first was parched was the One who could satisfy her spiritual thirst forever. To be slaked with living water was desire impossibly met, more than she ever imagined.
We are an innately bereft people with continual need, met and fulfilled by an everlasting Savior whose Spirit continually flows for and toward us. Because He entered our conversation millennia ago to grapple with our sin problem, we can find in Him true and lasting satisfaction of every dearth. We are alone? He comes to converse. We are ashamed? He comes with compassion and looks on us with loving eyes. We lack purpose? He asks us to serve Him. We are confused? He leads us to truth. We have doubts? He invites our faith.
Where do we look for soul satisfaction? What thirst can we entrust to Christ’s ever-flowing fountain of grace, goodness, love? When we drink deeply of Him, our life rhythm becomes constant security, continual refilling, continuous praise. (Ephesians 5:18)
“Come, thou Fount of every blessing;
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above;
praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
mount of God’s unchanging love!
O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace now, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart; O take and seal it;
seal it for thy courts above.” ~Robert Robinson (1758)
Lord, fill me with Your Spirit to overflow with Your living water to a thirsty world.
As the rain and snow 