“Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” (John 4:10). All of us thirst for happiness, for meaning, for that one sure path through the chaos and confusion that leads to peace and security. Like the woman of Samaria who met Jesus at the well, we too find ourselves going back to our wells day after day to help ease the thirst. We may not all have the same well. For some of us, the well might be an addiction or a vice - something to numb the pain or kill the boredom. For others, it might be a little more money in the bank account, a brand new car or new clothes or new gadgets to signal our status. It could be more like and views on social media, more movies to watch, more books to read, more video games to play. Whatever our well might be, one thing is for sure. We will have to come back soon to draw a little more from our well. But how often as we reach for the next vacation package, or the next news item to get angry about, is Christ sitting there at the well, hoping that we will take our focus away from the water that is right in front of us, which will only slake our thirst for a moment, and that we will instead choose to recognize the gift of God that He offers us, even living water from which we may drink and drink and drink and never thirst again? The thing is, Christ is by our side always. We never have to go looking for water to quench our thirst, especially not the living water that He offers us. Whatever our problems are, Christ will help us through them. The woman at the well had to travel in the heat of the day and lug the heavy water she drew from the well a great distance which must have required a great deal of sweat and effort and discomfort and pain. How often do we put ourselves through a great deal of pain and effort only to get a tiny thimbleful of water which is not enough even to replace all of the water we lost through blood, sweat and tears trying to get there? And all the while as we're staggering through the scorching desert with our mouths parched and our lips cracked and positively dying of thirst, Christ is right by our side holding out a chilled glass of water, practically begging us to take it and ease both our suffering and His. He hates to see us struggle like that for no reason. I hope that we can know the gift of God that is right in front of us. I hope that we can know that we don't have to go on some great journey to some distant well to feel loved and at peace, our thirst utterly quenched. Christ has been and is and always will be right at our side with a huge pitcher of water hoping that we will ask Him for a drink.
