WATER

Because of my health status I have to live with a bottle of water with me at all times so that I can sip on water throughout the day.  My salivary glands were fried in the undergoing of thirty radiation treatments in my neck and mouth area, and the lack of moister in my mouth has become a new, annoying, and daily routine for me.  It’s a challenge but it is my lot, and I have tried to rise to the occasion to do what I must do to maintain my health.

With this new way of being in my world I have been thinking a lot about something Jesus said.  To a woman at a well in Samaria Jesus said, “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” (John 4:14).

What a wonderful image, a spring of water welling up (surging, gushing, flooding, rising) to eternal life. It reminds me of an artesian well, a well made by boring into the earth and in which the water flows up due to internal pressure of some kind.  The water rises to the surface, bubbling up.  This is how Jesus describes what it means to drink of the water of life He gives.  It’s like an artesian well; a spring of water that just keeps welling up in a person’s life. 

My doctors have drilled it into my head, “Don’t get dehydrated.”  I am told that 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. Is that possible?  Furthermore, in 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger. The real shocker to me is that a lack of sufficient water is the number one trigger of daytime fatigue (according to www.Snopes.com).  According to www.livescience.com, and with a few exceptions, after three days, you need water or you'll perish. (Note to self!  Keep that bottle of water nearby).

Isn’t it interesting that the Bible is filled with references to the work of God in human life using the metaphor of water? (For example see Isaiah 12:3, 49:10, 55:1; John 7:37-39; Revelation 21:6, 22:17).  We are called to drink of the water of life.  I grew up in Southeast Missouri and the San Joaquin Valley of California. I know hot from first hand experience.  I also know the marvelous wonder of a glass of cold water on a hot summer day.  When I think of the words of Jesus my mind instantly goes back to my childhood and the value of keeping water nearby.

Jesus brings to us the awesome thought that the water of God is a spring of water, a spring that never goes dry and is always “welling up to eternal life.” “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.”

In Jesus we don’t just get isolated drinks of water; we get a living spring of water, always present, also redemptive, always healing, always restoring, and always filling us with the very reality of God.  It is water that baptizes us into the life of God, keeps us clean from anti-spiritual pollution, and keeps us hydrated in the realities of the kingdom of God.

I don’t know who gets the credit but I read recently this important paragraph about water.  It says, “The body needs about 3 quarts of water a day to operate efficiently. It helps break up and soften food. The blood, which is 90 percent H2O, carries nutrients to the cells. As a cooling agent, water regulates our temperature through perspiration. And without its lubricating properties, our joints and muscles would grind and creak like unused parts of some old rusty machinery.”  That’s a pretty descriptive definition of the need for water in our physical bodies, isn’t it?  It helps us understand the correlation between physical water and spiritual water, too.

The spring of water welling up in us to eternal life keeps us spiritually hydrated.  The water of the kingdom of God flows in and through us keeping us healthy, alive, and alert.  It quenches our thirst. It satisfies our inner longings.  It refreshes us when the journey gets tough.  It re-invigorates our life in Christ when we are tired and broken and in need of rest.

The water of life; It has a wonderful ring to it, doesn’t it?  And the water of life is offered to us without the need to have money because this water is without cost.  The word is, “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters” (Isaiah 55:1).  Are you thirsty for something more?  Come.  Jesus is waiting at the well in you, and He has water that will re-ignite your life.  Thirst no more.  Come to the water.