Eternal Water

No matter how many times it happens, it always somewhat delights and surprises me when I see one of God’s fingerprints on the events of my day. It happens often and I wouldn’t want it any other way. A few months ago, I was chatting with one of my besties. We were on a walk and stopped to have coffee at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. We sat outside visiting for awhile and our conversation was centered on God as it often does. We both took turns using the restroom before leaving. While I was waiting for her to come out of the bathroom, I realized how thirsty I had become. I turned toward the counter and saw a section of bottled water by various juices and bottled coffee drinks. I grabbed 2 and thought, if I’m thirsty, she probably is too. I paid for the water just as she came back out and said, “Oh man, thank you, I was just thinking I was thirsty.” We both opened them and took a few gulps before leaving. She made the comment, “This is good, what kind is this, I haven’t seen this kind before?” We both looked down at our bottles that had plastic raised bubble writing but no label. It took me a second to read it. It was a brand called “Eternal Water.” We both looked at each other stunned and then started laughing. She is the kind of friend who would immediately know what was going through my head. She said,”I just love God’s sense of humor!”

I pondered this a bit since then. Some just because it was a cool little moment and some because of the parallel it so accurately portrayed. Thirst.

Yesterday I was listening to a sermon at church. The minister who was preaching used this scripture:

John 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

He was talking about how beautiful it is that God pours out blessings from a well that will never run dry. When you believe, you live from this well and our cup runneth over. We will always have more than enough. We are rich.

 

Psalm 42:1 As the hart panteth after thewater brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

I often start to feel this way. I get tired, unmotivated, needing a refill and refreshment of my motivation to passionately follow in Christ’s footsteps. Sometimes the demands of this life start to fog the importance of taking time out of our day to refill by spending time with God. It slowly creeps in. Before I know it, it’s late. I’m responding to 1000 emails, I’m trying to get my kids to bed and ready for school. My body is aching, there is a pile of unfolded laundry on my bed, all I want to do is go to sleep, and I realize I didn’t spend enough time reveling in the things of God today. I don’t like forcing myself at this point. I know God knows my feelings and He is my best friend. What friend wants you to spend time with them when they really aren’t “feeling it.” Ouch, that’s a hard one to admit. That is the moment I realize that I feel this way because I should have prioritized Him first and this is why I am thirsty.  I need to go to the well.

I am so thankful that God knew we would start feeling this way. I know His son probably even felt this way at times. I’m sure that Jesus felt exhausted by the million directions all of us humans wanted to pull Him in while He walked this earth. He walked all these roads. His feet got dirty and sore. His body ached. He became exhausted. You can almost hear it in His response when the disciples woke Him on the ship during a scary storm on the sea of Galilee. First of all, Jesus was tired enough to sleep on a ship being thrown around in high winds and huge waves. That’s pretty stinking tired.

Mathew 8:26 And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.

He probably was thinking, You 12 dudes follow me around as I perform incredible miracles for my Father and you think He is going to let His son accidentally die in a storm? For real? I just cast a devil out of a boy and threw it into a cluster of swine and they ran off a cliff and died in the ocean. Eyes rolling. Did you guys forget that? That should have made more of an impression. That happened right before we got on this ship! I just imagine Jesus traversing some serious exhaustion. I admit, I’d probably have been one of the first to want to wake Jesus up when the storm got scary. I seem to always need reassurance when things aren’t looking good.

Jesus paid it all. He suffered all things. Even loneliness. In the garden He asked His best friends to watch and pray with Him and they all were sleeping when He needed them the most. He was even betrayed. He knows all the suffering.

He even knew thirst.

John 19:28 After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.

This scripture requires a moment of reflection. Our Savior, who took on all of our ugliest human filth, asked God to forgive us because, “We know not what we do.” He hung there at the precipice of death, at the pinnacle of human suffering, and He was thirsty. I imagine physical thirst was terrible, but the spiritual thirst must have been unimaginable.

He knew the desperate need for Eternal water. Refreshment for our bodies and souls. He said

John 4:14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but thewater that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

And there it is. Another promise of relief. Even better yet, if we drink from this well …

John 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

We can even quench another’s thirst with the rivers of living water that flow from our belly because we can point them to the well that will never run dry.

I have been praying over the weekend that God would guide my writing to whatever He had for me to convey. He doesn’t often give me the whole shebang in one shot. It’s usually a few things that get woven into a picture I can suddenly see and then the thoughts come to a rolling boil and I know it’s time to get cooking on the keyboard.  I can’t schedule these moments, I am at God’s mercy for them.

Today, I was still praying about this. I drove to my favorite hiking spot and I got out and started trecking up the mountain. There is a merge at the top of the first set of switchbacks, where the paved path meets a rocky path and they converge together the rest of the way. As I crested this spot, a friendly looking woman stood in this spot. We met eyes and I said hi. She said Hi, and asked how I was. I said I was, “Just plugging along.” She actually caught up to me and met my pace. We began walking together. Suddenly 2 lizards scared the daylights out of me and I kind of jumped and laughed and told her about my fear of rattlesnakes and we had a good laugh. We started chatting and I ended up telling her I’m not a very fast hiker because I’ve had some injuries.  I decided based on my gut instinct and quite possibly the leading of the Holy Spirit, to tell her briefly about my story. She asked at one point, “does this mean you will always have these problems from these antibiotics?” Here was a door and I decided to take it. I told her about my miracle. This opened a flood gate from both of us. For the rest of the hike up and all the way back down…we drank from the well sharing a love of God and our favorite scriptures. We even filled each others cup with the rivers of living water. It was beautiful. I found myself marveling at the beauty of the earth around us and this very precious moment in time that God ordained for us to meet at the well and drink.

God’s perfect fingerprints were all over this moment. All at once, the thoughts of the scriptures and comments from the sermon, ran together in this perfect parallel situation. God wants to fill our cup with blessings that run over, so we can share them and quench each others thirst for the living water. We never need to fear, this well never runs dry. There will always be enough. It comes forth from the Eternal spring of God’s love for each and every one of us. We can always be filled. We know where the fountain is and we can point each other to it. Our Father is rich with blessings and He pours them out on us continually.

Mathew 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.