More water, please

Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” – John 4:13–14 NKJV

We have had a very warm August in East Tennessee.  Today I stepped outside and felt the intensity of the sun burning down on my T-shirt-clad shoulders. The only sounds were a few cicadas with enough energy left to call for a mate and one lone caw from a passing crow.

For a minute, I envisioned one of those scenes from an old Western movie. You know, the ones where a cowboy, out of water and staggering from the heat, sees a mirage in the distance.

It’s unbearably hot, and I can say that as someone who hails from Southwest Florida.  My gigantic cup beckons me to have another drink. As I take a swig of water, I’m mentally calculating how much more I should drink. Day after day, I drink and count, count and drink. It never ends.

My imagination then carries me to the well in Sychar, where Jesus spoke with a Samaritan woman who had come to draw water. She would drink that water and eventually need more, just as I do. She would return to the well again and again because physical thirst is never satisfied for long.

But Jesus offered her something different—water that would satisfy forever.

As I take another drink from my cup, I smile at the contrast. Tomorrow I’ll fill it again. And probably again after that. As long as I live in this body, there will always be another thirst to quench.

But the deepest thirst of my soul has already been satisfied.

Jesus offers living water, a spring within me that will never run dry. I don’t have to ration it, measure it, or wonder if I’ve had enough.

My body may keep saying, “More water, please.”

But my soul has found the Well.