Living water
by Chelsea Pietsch
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Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst (John 4:13,14a).
Read John 4:5–42
It’s a scorcher today in Adelaide. I’m pouring drinks left, right and centre and thinking about Jesus in this passage asking the woman at the well for a drink.
The woman is surprised that Jesus is speaking to her, as she was a Samaritan. Yet Jesus is not concerned that her nationality differs from his. He’ll talk to anyone.
Perhaps Jesus is not thirsty after all; he seems more interested in making conversation with the woman. He wants to tell her about a source of water that never runs dry.
Naturally, the woman is interested. She’s also perplexed. Why is this man, who apparently has access to an eternal well, asking her for a drink in the first place?
Jesus, however, is not just talking about water as we know it – H2O – he is talking about living water; water that will quench the thirst of our souls.
We might have all that the world gives and yet still, we thirst. St Augustine once wrote that ‘Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God’. Don’t we know that to be true!
But what is this eternal or living water of which Christ speaks? What is this spring that will bubble up to eternal life?
Rev J Darsow, whom some of you may know as the author of the Australian Lutheran devotional ‘Strength for the Day’ once wrote:
‘The water of life is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. This restores and satisfies the soul, and quenches its thirst. It is offered freely in the gospel of Christ, which tells of the streams of love that flow from the Father’s heart, and assures us that in Christ, who has reconciled us sinners to God, there is forgiveness, life, and peace.’
Are you thirsty? The Holy Spirit is calling you to come to Jesus. Repent of trying to quench your thirst with lifeless idols. Come, drink, and live!
Oh Jesus, how I thirst! Lead me to your waters and give to me that which the world cannot give. Amen.
Chelsea Pietsch is a member of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Adelaide. She is married with two children and a consultant to Lutherans for Life (www.lutheransforlife.lca.org.au).
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