These are the words of Jesus. We’ve all been thirsty at some point in our lives. Recently, my sons and I were cleaning out my garage. It was a hot, hot day. And that was a huge job: sorting everything and deciding what to keep and what to throw away.
I was so tired, I could just drop! So I sat down, and I drank a cool glass of water. I needed that water. It stopped my body’s craving for water. Our bodies cannot survive without physical water.
In the same way, the spiritual body cannot survive without spiritual water. In the text, we see Jesus speaking with the woman at the well. He asked her for a drink of water. Jesus was thirsty, but He realized that the woman at the well had an even greater spiritual thirst. Her life was messed up. She had been married five times and even then was living with another man that she wasn't married to. She knew she desperately needed something. There was a void in her life, and she was trying to fill that void. She thought it could be filled only by finding someone to love her. She was trying to find love in all the wrong places. Jesus told her that her real need could only be met by finding in God a vital, life-giving relationship. She needed an appearance with Jesus. Jesus was able and willing to satisfy her spiritual thirst. Her greatest longing.
Jesus pointed out “a drink of real water only satisfies for a short time, but the water that I have is eternal. You will never thirst again. You will be satisfied.”
Saint John tells us that it means to walk with God moment by moment. Just like the woman at the well, to get the never-ending supply, we must ask Jesus for it. He never says no to our request.
Jesus is the living water. He is our life source, our sustenance. It is in Him that we live, move and have our being. We draw close to Jesus daily in prayer, we have the blessing to drink from His presence. His presence is the gift of life; it’s eternal life. Nothing satisfies the thirst of our souls because the things of this world can only fill our physical thirst, but it leaves us empty in the end.
When we come to Jesus, we will find peace and become a source of blessing to others, just as the woman at the well became a blessing to those where she lived.
The woman at the well found what she needed—and so can we. All we need to do is turn to Him and ask Him.
So I ask you a question: Got water?