Thirst

Have you ever been really thirsty? We buy 40 packs of purified water every time we go to Costco. You can fill up your water bottle from the dispenser at work or at the airport. You can even get filtered clean water from your refrigerator.

Toye Toye was the town where we discipled pastors, helped the coffee growers and built a school in Haiti. To get water there the children and women would either climb a 4,000 foot mountain or they would walk five miles to the next town Baptiste.

Why would they make such an effort? Water is indispensable for bodily functions like hydration, circulation, digestion and organ function. Access to clean water is essential for drinking, sanitation and hygiene. You can’t live without water. So they would either hike up or hike out to get their water.

Water has always been precious. When the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they were thirsty in a dry and barren place. They cried out to the Lord. The Lord provided water for them gushing from a Rock.

I wonder when Jesus explained the Old Testament to the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus if He didn’t help them see that He was the Rock. Not only is He the Rock we can stand on, He is the Rock that gushes with life giving water.

The Feast of Tabernacles commemorated how God sustained His people during their wilderness wanderings. The people lived in a booth for the 7 days of the feast. It was a reminder of God’s provision and goodness. The culminating event was the priest taking 7 jars of water and pouring them out.

This is where Jesus stood and shouted to the crowd Anyone who is thirsty may come to Me. Anyone who believes in Me may come and drink. For the Scriptures declare rivers of living water will flow from his heart (John 7.37,38).

Jesus speaking to the woman at the well had spoken of living water as eternal life. Here it is referring to the Spirit. Whenever someone is thirsty enough for peace and they come and believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit is given, resulting in eternal life.

Water is essential to physical life. God made sure His people had plenty when He gushed water out of a rock in the desert. Living Water is the overflow of God’s presence through His Spirit.

Our hope for the children of  Toye Toye Haiti, having climbed the mountain to get water for their family or having walked to the next city to fill their jugs is that they might experience the Living Water that will fill them with joy and peace in all of their hardships.