Spring of Living Water
In the fourth chapter of John’s gospel Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well that he would give her water that is such that she would never thirst again. “The water that I will give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (4:14).
I grew up in a part of Missouri where springs were all around. The church I attended as a boy had a spring down the hill from the church house where cold clear water bubbled up from the ground and we freely drank from it. Jesus said that the water from Jacob’s well never satisfied and people kept coming back over and over. He used it as a metaphor to express the reality that we are spiritually empty and thirsting for something that only God can fully and completely satisfy. The grace of God is that through Jesus we are given life giving and soul satisfying water that can never be quenched and are blessed with the sweetness of everlasting refreshment through the Holy Spirit. The psalmist declared “As a deer pants for water, so my soul longs after you, Oh God.” (42:1).
I thank the Lord that as the gospel is preached every week in our CPBA churches that people here in the northland can come and drink from the well of Jesus and never thirst again.
-Dr. Gary Mathes