What Will Truly Satisfy?
We thought we’d prepared for our little hike with our boys, but we missed one very important thing. Proper footwear – check. Sunscreen – check. Snacks – check. Water – check. Well, sort of…
We each started out with a plastic bottle of water. Keep in mind – this was back in the dark ages when there was no such thing as a high-dollar, insulated water bottle. What caused the problem that day was that the trail was a bit more challenging than we’d anticipated and the weather surprised us by being warmer than we’d planned for.
Turns out, this was not the day to teach children how to ration water. On the way back down the trail, our younger boy, hot, tired, and complaining with every step, stopped in his tracks and dramatically declared, “I’m dying to death!”
Fortunately, as we rounded the corner, we caught sight of our car – just in time to prevent our little one from actually “dying.” Fresh, cold water waiting for us at the trailhead refreshed us all and chased away the angry beast that thirst had drawn out in that parched kiddo!
Interesting how thirst – and the quenching of that thirst - can change a person.
In the fourth chapter of the book of John in the Bible, John recalls a trip by Jesus and His disciples through the region of Samaria. Scripture says, “Now He had to go through Samaria.” “Had to?” There’s a lot of history and culture for the reasons why this was a questionable decision, but as Jesus rested at the well outside the town of Sychar, He encountered a woman who arrived in the heat of the day to draw water. He engaged her in conversation (also a culturally questionable move), but what Jesus saw in this woman wasn’t a hard-working, upstanding pillar of her community. His all-knowing mind saw a soul parched by immorality, shame, and loneliness.
The women of the town came to the well to draw water for the day’s cooking and household needs in the cool of the morning or the evening. Noonday trips to the well were for the ostracized and put out, the unwelcomed and contemptible. And in the hot afternoon sun, here was this woman with her empty water jars – a serial adultress, hardened by poor decisions and life circumstances, thirsty for love and significance.
And Jesus offered her living water – Himself.
Skeptical and uncomfortable at first, she refused. Then a sip – the dry ground of her soul beginning to soften. Finally, a wild abandonment as she threw herself into the fresh river of grace flowing before her, unable to get enough!
Refreshed and renewed and reborn, this woman transformed and washed in the waters of redemption ran to the town testifying about the Man at the well and the living water He had given her. Many came to that same well, many listened, many believed. Many drank deeply from the “spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Eternity was changed for many because one parched soul partook of Jesus the living water and couldn’t help but share what she’d found.
Countless varieties of masks are worn by thirsty souls, but Jesus sees it all – shame, deep disappointment, grief, guilt, unfulfilled longings. How many people do I turn from because they’re needy, frustrating, unpleasant, unkind, impatient? And how many of them are actually just thirsty?
Lord Jesus, give me Your eyes to see the parched souls behind the difficult personalities. Help me to be a pure, useful vessel to pour into them Your living water. Let new life spring from the desert of their hearts, and may their deepest needs meet their deepest satisfaction in the river of Your love.
