water

Nenana, my almost-three-year-old friend, often looks up at me and says, "Massum water." I know this translates to "I want some water," and I get her some.

Our bodies are 60% water. We need it to survive. And yet it's possible to take even a necessity for granted.

Until it's gone.

For 3 days last week, we had no running water in our house. We weren't the only ones. The only places in the city that did have water were the ones that had their own wells or tanks. Actually, our house recently got a tank too. It even has a pump. But the pump doesn't have access to electricity, so the water can't make it from the front patio to the house.

We keep water in basins in the bathrooms and kitchens, since this happens not infrequently. It took about 24 hours for us to use up the reserves. Still the pipes were empty.

I never realized before how often and how much we need water! Cooking, cleaning, bathing, flushing the toilet, washing hands, doing laundry. Without water, life is more complicated and stinkier. We had to use hand sanitizer, pile our dirty dishes in the sink, and shower at the office.

Thankfully, we did have plenty of drinking water. We buy that in jugs. But the lack of water for everything else reminded me that it is possible to be without good drinking water as well. Much of the world lives constantly in this dangerous predicament. And how much more acutely it must be felt in places hot enough to triple a person's daily hydration requirement. In fact, as I write this it's 94 degrees and I'm sweating. I just had to get myself a glass of water.

Perhaps it is not surprising that my week has brought some questions to mind.

Is my soul truly as thirsty for God as my body is for water?

The Psalmist says, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?" (Psalm 42:1-2)

And if I resonate with the Psalmist, do I take Jesus up on his response?

"On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, 'Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.'" (John 7:37)

And if I drink, am I content with my own satisfaction, or do I share it?

Jesus goes on to say, "'Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.'" (John 7:38)

Think of that! Rivers of living water. From him, through me, to others. And he never runs out.

Yesterday, I joined a truck load of friends for a trip to some waterfalls nearby. What a contrast to the empty pipes at home. I want my life to look like that.

Massum water, Lord Jesus!