Thirst

Thirst

Those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.

BARELY PAUSING FOR BREATH, I finished gulping the water in my glass. Four tall glasses already, and the morning was only halfway gone. I refilled the glass, water swirling as it settled.

A few days earlier, I’d stopped eating sugar. But a strange side effect was a constant, inexhaustible thirst. It took a while before the realization set in: this thirst wasn’t new. My body had been thirsty for a very long time. I had simply ignored or overlooked it, instead eating a small snack or a bite of chocolate. I’d mistaken my body’s cues for water, temporarily fixing the problem with food instead.

Misreading our need for water isn’t uncommon. In Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well—in which he reveals that he knows everything about her yet loves her anyway—he tells her about living water only he can provide. Though they are surveying a well filled with physical water, it’s a spiritual filling he’s concerned about.

Wells are filled in one of two ways: either they are a reservoir that simply holds water, or they contain spring water. While a reservoir is a still pool of water, a spring is like a fountain that bubbles up, the motion coming from within rather than without. Barnes’ Notes on the Bible describes this ever-living fountain as remarkably resilient: “[It] flows at all seasons of the year, in heat and cold, and in all external circumstances of weather, whether foul or fair, wet or dry. So religion always lives; and, amid all changes of external circumstances—in heat and cold, hunger and thirst, prosperity and adversity, life, persecution, contempt, or death—it still lives on, and refreshes and cheers the soul.”

This new life—this endless living water we gain through the power of Christ’s sacrifice—springs up like an endless, effortless fountain that is always in motion, joyful, and free. When we embrace it, it becomes an inner source that never runs dry. It’s both immediate and eternal, and its inexhaustible supply satisfies our thirsty souls in a way nothing else can.

Lord, thank you that your living water satisfies our thirst. May we always seek to be filled. Amen.

-Kristin

One Good Word: Drink half your body weight in ounces of water throughout the day. Consider how the living water Jesus provides refreshes your soul.