Drawing Water

John 4:13-15 Jesus said to her, “Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall 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, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”


Thirst is such a strong motivator. In some third world countries people will drink water they know will make them sick because they are dying of thirst with no other water. Jesus lived in an arid climate where water had great importance. Thirst was a common phenomenon in the lives of those he would meet. It is not this thirst for water however that Jesus desires to meet. He refers to our hunger and thirst in a psychological metaphorical sense. Jesus knew that we find it very hard to be satisfied for long. We seem to be always searching because of a feeling that something in life is incomplete. What is it that you think will make you satisfied? How many things have filled that role in time gone by?


Jesus declares, not just in this passage, but also in others, that when he fills our hunger and thirst they don't return. Many authors in one way or another have written about that place in the human heart that only God can fill. They describe how people seem to wander around from one thing to another until that void is filled.


I don't it's possible to stop wanting for yourself or for others. I still have dreams and desires for my life but even more for those I love. I know human beings create better things because our minds can see things that are better than what we have today, but that has nothing to do with the sense we have that we are incomplete with some piece missing. Even with the best partner a life could have, like my Marsha, without God in the void. we still hunger and thirst for life's true meaning and purpose.