Fountain of Living Water

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 (Jn. 4:10).

 

In the natural realm, can we ever satisfy our thirst once and for all?  Even when we've been extremely thirsty and hot, and even when we've just had the most satisfying cool drink of our lives, and even when we've been most grateful for being able to quench our thirst, we know that we'll be thirsty again. 

 

That is exactly what the spiritual life is like.   There may be a time in our lives when we are so spiritually thirsty that we desperately seek to satisfy our thirst, a time when we cry out to God and need Him to answer us.  But, somehow, spiritually, we do not seek living water every day, as we do natural water.  Yet, everything in creation should speak to us of spiritual realities.  We need to satisfy the thirst of our spirits at least as often as we do the thirst of our bodies.

 

If all we had of Scripture was John 4:10, it would be enough, for that one verse would drive us daily to the Source of Living Water, if we believed it.  And that Source would not fail us; the more we drink from it, the more we desire the water it provides to us.

 

I remember once seeing in my mind's eye a kind of vision as I was praying:  I saw a great gathering of people in a huge circle.  In the middle of the circle was a large opening, larger than a room but smaller than a football field.  And Jesus was standing at one edge of the opening.  As all of the gathered crowd watched, He began to teach a mentally retarded child one step of a dance.  Excitedly, as she learned the one step, she began to dance around the center, showing all the people the one step she had learned.  "I've got it!  I've got it," she cried.  "I've got it!" 

 

Jesus, along with all the others, grinned as He watched her do the one step he had taught her.  Then, He gently called her back and began teaching her the next step in the dance.  As she mastered it, she repeated the process -- doing her dance for the joy and pleasure of herself and all the others, crying out her excitement at learning the dance. 

 

As I watched the vision unfold, I understood its lesson:  I was the retarded child, and each time, I was sure I knew the dance -- what I did not know was how much more I had to learn, and that I would have to return to the Master constantly for more teaching. 

 

That is the spiritual life.  There is a Divine Master who knows the next step, and Who loves to teach us, if we are but willing to be taught.  "Religion" is not a static body of material to be learned, but a daily dance with Someone Who loves us.  If we don't engage in the dance every day, we think we've "got it," but all we know is yesterday's lesson. 

 

Like dance, like thirst, our relationship with God is never 'finished,' never done.  He is new every morning, and His lessons, His grace, His love, His mercy to us are new every morning.  If we don't thirst for living water -- not stagnant water -- we will never know the joy of dancing and of satisfying our thirst with the water of eternal life.