Thankful for Water

Living in arid Arizona, I’ve come to appreciate water a lot more than I had in the past. When we lived on the east coast, we would often find ourselves feeling water logged due to the amount of rain that we received. That didn’t mean that we never went through times of drought – we did, but it was nothing like what we experience here.

We talk about the early settlers who were traveling across country, and what it would have been like for them. What a difficult journey to make. If you ran out of water, you were seriously in trouble. There aren’t too many lakes and rivers in our part of the country. And digging wells in certain areas here are pretty much impossible even with today’s technology, so it must have been a rather scary time for those early settlers. Throw in high mountain ranges and deep canyons… Well, it would make for a long hard journey.

Last week, we received rain 2 days in a row after not having any rain for months. In fact, it was only the second time that Wyatt (our youngest pup) had ever experienced rain in his life. It was fun watching them both gingerly step into puddles and jump back. They weren’t sure what to think of it all. Now, once it stopped raining, they had a ball digging in the very wet, sandy backyard. lol! The parched land had been refreshed with a good rain. The air was clearer for a little while – until the humidity soared and the temps began to rise once again.

We were so grateful for our rain storms. It rained enough that the dirt was actually cleared out of the air. (If we don’t get enough rain, our rain ends up coating the vehicle with basically mud due to the amount of dirt in the air. It’s rather crazy.) We enjoyed the brief break in the high temps.

All this makes me think of how we go through periods of drought in our lives. Times where everything things to go wrong or where we’re constantly be challenged by one thing or another. We’re weary and long to be refreshed. We need the living water that only Christ can provide.

…so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” (John 4:6-15 ESV)

I am thankful this week not only for physical water but also living water.

Thankful Thursday is being hosted at Women Taking a Stand this month.