February 9, 2009 @ 7:04 pm | Filed under: The Solid Rock,The Writing Life

“I knew then that “w-a-t-e-r” meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, joy, set it free!” –HELEN KELLER
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My mind has been on living water a lot lately.

I’ve felt like a kid at a big giant water fountain – one so large that I’m raised on my tiptoes, with tongue outstretched, eyes shut tight in wonderful anticipation – loving the cool wetness as it bathes all the parched spots that life sometimes dries up.

Jesus has always delighted in giving water.

I think about the Samaritan woman. It’s often bothered me that she was never known by name, but rather by her location and her place in life. But today – as I sit here, reading through the story again, I’m touched by just how electrifying it must have been to meet Him.

He, who reached out to her – a woman and an untouchable – and with kindness she’d never known before, he softly, politely, lovingly gave her water to drink. No doubt she had come to draw water at that hour in order to avoid the mass of other women who would do nothing except point, whisper, and avoid all contact with her.

But this man – he looked her in the eye, perhaps even touched her sleeve to get her attention, and then he proceeded to begin a conversation that, interestingly enough, is the longest recorded conversation in the Bible between Jesus and anybody.

That is fitting, I think.

The water He offers us – all of us, the ones from the wrong side of town and the ones raised on church pews, the ones with faults and failures and the ones who’ve yet to taste bitter disappointment – is the same. What better way to demonstrate sharing this living water than by making direct eye contact, speaking words of truth in love, and taking time to meet a person in need – right where they are?

In a global community that is so caught up in living green, how is it that God’s love – this living water – is very often the last place folks go for solutions. This living water is pure, it’s free, it can be recycled over and over again, and will never clutter anything.

It breathes life, restores life, gives life.

It’s that wonderful, cool something that flows over my hand – and my heart, and my soul, and my spirit – awakening me, giving me light, joy, and setting me free!