Water

We have been having a lot of rain here lately.  That is normal since it is the rainy season but it got me thinking about water.

The average human body is made up of about 60% - 70% water.  The human brain is made up of approximately 85% water.  Without a regular intake of water we develop problems.  I found this information online:  "Lack of water to the brain can cause numerous symptoms including problems with focus, memory, brain fatigue and brain fog, as well as headaches, sleep issues, anger, depression, and many more."  Water is vital.

It is also true that many, if not most, people do not drink enough water.  I have heard that the average adult loses about 80 ounces of water a day, but most take in only about 32 ounces.  Not sure how accurate these statistics are but the fact is that we need water.  We cannot live without water.  We will die without water.

Following the disastrous earthquake in Turkey earlier this week rescuers have been searching for survivors.  Doctors warn that the longer those survivors go without receiving water, the less likely they are to survive.  Being cut off from water means certain death if it continues.

Now, this is not a blog about our physical health.  Why would I be talking about water?

As Christians we must take in the water of life, the living water.  We cannot live without it.  The symptoms caused by lack of this precious water are much worse than the above mentioned physical symptoms from lack of physical water.

Jesus told the woman at the well to ask him for living water. "Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” John 4:10 (ESV)

What is this "living water?"  Wells in ancient Israel were of two types.  Some were more like what we might call a cistern.  They contained water but it was not being constantly renewed.  Other times when a well was dug it tapped into an underground spring or other source of water and was constantly renewed.  The water was always fresh and never stagnant.  The woman at the well was told to ask for continually renewed water.  

Later in the same passage we read these words: "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 4:13-14 (ESV)  

Jesus is the source of the living water.  The Old Testament also talks about the source of living water.  "for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water." Jeremiah 2:13 (ESV)  "O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water." Jeremiah 17:13 (ESV)

God himself says he is the fountain of living waters.  God's people had forsaken that fountain.  There is no hope for spiritual survival when we cut ourselves off from the source of water.  

Keep in touch with Jesus.  He provides that water that is constantly being renewed.  When Christ is in us that water leads us to eternal life.  Without that water we are doomed.