What could be better than writing about a cold, thirst-quenching glass of water on a hot and muggy day like today?  Drinking in the cool liquid, of course!  Water is so essential – next to the air we breathe water is critical for bodies to live.   From the earliest beginning of civilization, men have chosen to build homes and settlements near lakes, streams, rivers, oceans.  Water sources were and are central to making decisions about where to dwell.

Water is so important that I think water can be taken for granted.  However, water is absolutely critical for life and survival, and I am fascinated to discover that the Bible is chock full of intriguing statements about water.

When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the LORD will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys.  I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. Isaiah 41:17 -18 ESV

Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.  Isaiah 55:1a ESV

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.  The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13

Repeatedly, time after time, from Old Testament to New, God speaks to people – to us –  that He is the source of the all-important water source, our need for survival and life.  In the intriguing Old Testament stories, God literally brings water out of dry rocks where there was no water, to satisfy the thirsty.

The Psalmist David describes a dry and weary land where there is no water – a desert, and writes that he thirsts for God.

Jesus tells the random crowd of onlookers on the mountain that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied.

Even if I were to list all of the myriads of references to water in the Bible, it would be too long for a blog.  I can assume, though, that the water that is irreplaceable in our physical bodies is on the same level as the “water” that is a non-negotiable in the interior life.  The water of God (if I were a theologian, I might dare to say the water that is God) is righteousness.  We are dying of thirst for it, and only water will satisfy.  Drinking a cool glass of water satisfies my thirst, but I cannot rely on one glass of water to sustain me for the rest of my days.  Drinking of the living water does not mean I will never be thirsty again.  When I discovered that what will quench my thirst is here, in God’s presence, I have found what is essential -where the source of water.  Here is where I may dwell, that I might continually drink, and be satisfied.