John 4:7-14: (NRSV)
A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 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 no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”
Psalm 143:6 (NRSV)
I stretch out my hands to you;
my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Selah
Devotion
“Be like water” was the bit of advice that my grandfather gave to my mother whenever she faced obstacles. This saying has become a mantra for me in the past year. Anyone who has had plumbing issues in their homes has an idea of what this advice means; water finds a way around obstacles or chips away at them as we see in our homes and in the natural world. Water is a powerful force that can be destructive. It runs deep and can leave traces for hundreds of years. And, most importantly, water is essential for life.
These properties of actual water are also applicable to the living water of Jesus. The water that Jesus offers makes a way out of no way, runs deep and leaves marks, and is life-giving. The Living Water of Jesus will actually quench our thirst. Though life and world events may seem a barren, hopeless wilderness, Jesus meets us and offers us water. Water that is never ending.
Prayer
Living Water,
My soul thirsts for you. Fill me with your Spirit.
Help me to “be like water” this day, Fount of all Blessings.
Meggie Lineberger
YouTube Video – The Bible Project’s Water of Life video – HERE