Water is essential to life. Anyone who paid attention in biology knows this. It doesn’t matter if you are a one celled organism, a plant, or an animal your body is mostly water. Wars have been faught over the control of water. Water is important. Growing up on a dry land farm where ran was often scarce I remember how important water is,many times over the summer we would have to fill tanks up to take galons of water out to our cattle because ponds and well would go dry. Water is important.
When we live in areas where water is so easily come by we often forget just how imprtant this resource is. I’m thirsty so I will just walk all the way over to the sink and turn on the faucet to fill up my glass. Big deal why is it that Jesus is begging for a drink. Water is important and scarce. It wasn’t that long ago that we would have to go out and bring water into our homes. For most of human history indoor plumbing was about as far fetched as sending a rocket to the moon. Just to get a drink was work, it was a sacrifice of time and energy.
Water is so important that it has become an importat symbol of life. And has important places in probably every religion of the world. Our Chrstian traditions are no different. Water is one of the many symbols of the Holy Spirit. We use water to refresh and cleanse our bodies. Which is also representative of what the Holy Spirit does in our lives.
There are really two types of water: stagnate and living. It is not too hard to imagine the difference. Stagnate water is water that is standing still found in pools, wells, and holding tanks. Living water is water that is moving. Living water is the most representative of the Spirit. The Spirit moves it is never standing still. Jesus offers living water (John 4:7-15) a Spirit that is on the move. It is not a religion that stands still but is moving. I consider the difference, am I trying to dam up the stream of water or am I allowing the Spirit to move through me? This question says quite a bit about our understanding of our relationship with God. Trust is hard and when we can’t see the outcome it is easier to stay where we are and start building a dam around what we know. Listening to the Spirit takes faith and intamacy with God, when we are closer and living in the water and allowing it to flow it becomes easier to be pulled along by the current. Today would be a good day to examine your life and consider where God has been active. I’m sure you will be as surprised as I am to actually be aware of how much the living water has flown. Praise God for His many Bblessings and the grace that is new every morning.
Discussion
No comments yet.