Living Water

I think it probably goes without saying that life in Lesotho looks a lot different than life in the U.S. Cultural differences aside there are all sorts of little things I do here on a daily basis that I don't do in the States. It's the difference of living in a first-world country vs. a third-world country. It's not bad, just different.

One of the greatest hassles of living here is having to filter water. Just by looking at the tap water (usually) you wouldn't know there was bacteria in it. For the most part it runs clear and looks refreshing. At this point my system is probably used to it and I could most likely drink it straight from the tap without being sentenced to a week in the bathroom. Better to be safe than sorry, though, right?  I really shouldn't complain because we have filters in our houses, so we don't have to boil water or run it through a coffee filter. At the same time, though, when all I want is a glass of water and the water jugs are empty it's just plain annoying.

A few weeks ago I was, once again, filling the water jugs in my house when I was reminded of the story of the woman at the well in John 4:

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "will you give me a drink?" (His disciples had gone into the 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 do 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." 
"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?" 
Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." 
The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
Verses 7-15

As I watched the water slowly fill up the jug it hit me that I was just like the Samaritan woman. My constant refilling the water jugs suddenly became an analogy for other parts of my life. So often I keep returning to different wells in order to draw up things that I hope will fulfill and sustain me, only to have to return again and again and again. I'm never satisfied. My thirst is never quenched. When I try and live out my life my own way, by my own power, I'm always disappointed. Like the woman at the well, I question Jesus and doubt that he can do what he says he can do.

But the beauty is that Jesus CAN do what he says he will do. He doesn't need any equipment to draw living water out of the well because he is the living water. Jesus doesn't offer us some external item; he offers himself. This is the truth of what we've just celebrated this past weekend. Jesus offered himself upon the cross as THE sacrificial lamb. He was and is the end all, be all, once and for all propitiation for our sins. He casts our sin as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12) and the Father sees us as pure and blameless. Jesus died so that we may have life. But the Jesus I serve is even more powerful than that! He didn't stop there! He defeated death and rose from the grave with new and eternal life so that we too might have eternal life, new life. The journey from Palm Sunday to Resurrection Sunday is the fulfillment of the promise Jesus makes at that well in John 4. He died and rose again to give us that living water, to give us himself, in such a way that it will never ever ever run out.

Now as I refill the water jugs in my house and enjoy a cold, refreshing glass of water I remember, even though physically I will thirst again, spiritually my thirst has been quenched because of my Jesus, the living water that will never run dry. Hallelujah!