Thirsty

There's nothing more refreshing than clean water when you're thirsty and tired. There's nothing more life-giving when dehydrated. There's nothing more cleansing when dirty. Without water we stay thirsty, tired and dirty. Without water we die.


I'm used to easy access to safe water on tap at home. I try to imagine how hard it must be for the 20% of the world's population who don't have easy access to safe water. How tiring it must be to have to carry water daily from a distant source, a task usually done by women and children.


Water is essential to life, but there's another sort of thirst - thirst for meaning, for respect, to know and be known in relationship, for love, for God. Later today I expect to preach a sermon on John 4: 5-42, the story of Jesus' meeting with a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. Earlier in Lent I posted a reflection on this story here.


I rather like this modern day monologue in the video below of what the woman might have said to Jesus.







This post is the 19th in a series of daily Lenten reflections based on a Bible reading from the Common Worship Lectionary of the church of England. This one is based on John 4: 5-42.

Comments

  1. Water was the subject of the lesson I taught in Sunday school today. Thank you for this.

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  2. Thanks for commenting Chelliah. Water seems to be a recurring theme on what I've been thinking about lately - either too much of it as in floods and tsunami, or not enough as in desert or lack of easy access to clean water. My post today on Psalm 42 is about thirst.

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