Well-watered

For some of us, the sound satisfies. The undulating roar of the waves as they break and finish their foamy roll. The gurgle of a brook on a mountain hiking path. Even the man-made ripple of a fountain in the yard.

We visited Estes Park, Colorado. The overwhelming grandeur of the Rockies, the magnificence and humor of elk roaming the streets and hanging out on porches, the blinding sun off the snow-capped peaks all took our breath away. But the impression that stays with me most was the smallest and least imposing detail of our visit. A tiny brook bubbled its way from the mountains and the park, down through the streets of the little town and on into the canyons that lead away from that village-bowl that is set in the mountains. I sat on a bench next to the murmuring brook and just listened, lost in the wonder that God would use such a tiny feature to speak to me.

The sight draws some of us to return to a place again and again. Broad ocean vistas where the horizon melts away and the sky and sea blend into one. A mountain lake with an exact duplicate reflection on glass-smooth water, a blinding slab of silver when the sun hits it just so. Waterfalls so far away that they look like fluttering white ribbons as they crash onto the rocks and rivers below. The water always pulls us back.

I spent long summer hours in front of my grandmother’s old black and white television set watching classic movies, a great many of them westerns. While I lived for the cattle stampedes – exciting stuff – the picture that stays with me still is of the cowboy lost in the desert, on his knees clawing in the sand, frantic for water.

A healthy intake of water daily consists of 64 ounces. We are made up of anywhere between 55 and 75 percent water. We need it for properly lubricated internal organs and joints, beautiful skin, healthy eyes, efficient metabolism, movement of oxygen to cells, and regulation of body temperature. Plus when we’re really, really thirsty, it’s just what satisfies best.

A search in Scripture for the word “water” yields 436 results in the NIV. God gave us a desire for it because it is so necessary for life, both current physical and eternal. Jesus said, “but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14) Once we accept this life-saving and continually life-giving gift, we are no longer crawling in the desert. It continues to bubble up into our daily lives, available for us to drink of the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control that it offers. (Galatians 5:22, 23a)

Come and listen to the inviting sound of a bubbling spring. And drink freely!

Ps 63:1; John 7:38
O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”