Living Water

 

I remember when I was a kid how we bragged about having the best-tasting water in the whole state right here in Vinita, Ok., especially when compared to the water at our grandparents’  home in Kansas. Their water was nasty, sulfur water. It stunk like rotten eggs and we only drank it when we got so thirsty we had to have a drink. Then we had to pinch our noses so we couldn’t smell it.

 

Vinita gets its water from Grand Lake of the Cherokees. It seems like at least in my memory that the water was so perfect-tasting and we loved to drink it, but now it doesn’t seem to taste as good.

 

I have a water-filter pitcher that I use and pour my water through it into a bottle, to carry with me. If I have it with me in the car when I get thirsty, as a last resort I will drink my water, rather than stop and buy a bottle of pop.

 

Of course you realize that the things we remember from our childhood are always better than things now. Life was simpler, easier, and better then. The water was pure, clear, and tasted like it came straight out of the prettiest, cleanest lake in Oklahoma.

 

  “On the last day, that great day of the feast [of Tabernacles,] Jesus stood and cried out [with a loud voice], saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me, and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” John 7:37-38 NKJV.

 

Living water, He said. This is water that flows from the ground, moving water, running water, like from a stream. This is the same word that is used of the “living” God. This is the living water that flows from the throne of the Living God.

 

Jesus issued the call to anyone, to each one, individually and personally. He issued the call with a loud voice so that everyone would hear it. The call goes out to the thirst, to the one who will come to Jesus. Only Jesus can satisfy your thirst.