Our youngest granddaughter pedaled her bike down the riverside trail and called, “You can’t go fast like me.” (She was right about that.)
During brief rest stops, she picked wild violets, admired an Australian shepherd who passed us, and marveled at a deer who posed behind his foliage camouflage.
Though we chose shady paths, hot summer air soon slowed our pace. I suggested we return to the car for water, but our little biker wanted to continue. Ten minutes later, when her face began to resemble a ripe tomato, I insisted we take a break.
On the way to the car, our little sweetheart admitted, “I REALLY need some water, Gigi.” My husband and I gladly provided what she needed—ice-cold water and a damp paper towel to wipe her face.
That afternoon we enjoyed a different water experience. While she played in a wading pool, I shared two Bible stories. She asked questions and then uttered words that were music to my ears, “Tell me another story about Jesus.”
One day she’ll understand more about Him, the One who promises to meet our needs—the same One who identified Himself as the Messiah to the Samaritan woman at the well.
Jesus told the woman, 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
After conversing with Jesus, the startled woman left her water jar beside the well and ran toward town telling those she met,
Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?
John 4:29
Many Samaritans recognized Jesus as the Messiah that day after the woman’s testimony (v. 39). Later, Jesus issued an invitation to a group in Jerusalem and to us.
If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
John 7:37-39
Although water quenched our thirst at the park that morning, we grew thirsty again by lunchtime. Methods we may choose to satisfy the thirst of our hearts, other than God’s way, are short-lived at best–like drinking water for physical thirst. God offers eternal, living water to us and identifies it as His Holy Spirit working in us (passage above). Jesus satisfies the longings of our souls the moment we surrender to Him and throughout eternity.
Jesus satisfies the longings of our souls the moment we surrender to Him and throughout eternity. Share on X
On a hot summer day when we enjoyed walking beside the river and playing in the wading pool, we sipped cold water to slake our thirst. However, nothing can quench the thirst of our soul but a personal relationship with Jesus.
Consider these questions:
- Are you thirsty for the living water God offers, or do you have a personal relationship with Jesus already?
- Does someone you know long to hear “another story about Jesus”— your story about giving your life to Him?
- Has the heat of recent trials or fears made you long for the refreshment of His peace? How do you embrace His peace, joy, and hope like a drink of cool water to your soul?