Water for the Thirsty
Years ago a weary woman stumbled upon a remedy for her cracked soul. She wasn’t seeking solutions when she lugged her cumbersome pots to the local well. She had simply come for water again...
Hadn’t she just filled those jugs yesterday? And the day before that?
She was tired of seeing the bottom of the heavy clay cisterns. Nothing fuels exhaustion like doing the same thing over and over again. Mothers understand that. Why are my feet sticking to the kitchen floor? Didn’t I mop that spot five minutes ago? What’s that smell? I just changed your diaper. I don’t know what’s for supper. I’m still cleaning up the lunch dishes. Maybe the Lord left the weary woman unnamed in John’s gospel because her dehydrated soul reminds us of our own.
“When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a
drink?’ (His disciples had gone into town to buy food).
The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ (For Jews did not associate with Samaritans).
Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink,
you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.’”(John 4:4-10)
The woman was skeptical. When was the last time someone had offered her anything without taking something in return?
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (v 13, 14) She mopped the sweat beads from her brow and stared at the dusty ground. Welling water, eternal life: it sounded better than her daily drudgeries.
“Sir, give me this water…” (v15).
Though water runs reliably from every faucet in my home and I just polished off a tall, cool glass of Diet Coke, the scene at that ancient well stirs something deep within me. Could it be that my own cry from the rocking chair in the middle of the night is just a thirsty woman’s plea? Why does my heart feel so empty when my hands are so full?
“Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst…” (V 13).
Put down that cracked cup. You are thirsty.
The Overflow: Sir, give me this water… John 4:15
The Overflow: Sir, give me this water… John 4:15
I love the picture that you have to accompany this awesome devotional!