A Cool Drink of Water

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he high desert of New Mexico, located in the southwestern corner of the United States, is home to both humans and wild life. Philmont Scout Ranch, where I served as a chaplain for two summers, is in this area and attracts people from all over the world. In addition to boys and girls, a large number of adults also visit the ranch for fun and adventure.

Also living at Philmont during the summer, is a wide variety of wildlife.  Although animals and man are different, they do have several needs in common.  Food and shelter are among the most significant, but water is the most important commodity sought after in the high desert.  When animals have enough water to drink, they stay in the upper elevations.  However, when water becomes less available, they come down to lower elevations to hunt for it. 

The most important meeting at Philmont stresses the importance of consuming an adequate amount of water.  Due to the low humidity, water loss is not easily detectable.  If an adequate level of water is not maintained in the body, Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) will result.  The person becomes dehydrated and, if enough water is not consumed, a trip to the health lodge is in order to realign the body's level of water.  Consuming water, therefore, is a top priority in this environment.  Water is life and this point is made abundantly clear to those wanting to hike and enjoy the outdoors. 

Jesus had a similar experience with a woman he met at a well.  She had come to draw water to replenish her supply.  This task was performed daily and was an integral part of maintaining a household.  The interesting thing about this meeting between Jesus and the woman at the well, as she is known, is in the conversation.  Jesus opens the dialogue with a request for water.  Here, we have a wonderful picture of Christ's humanity.  The desert sun had rendered him tired and thirsty and, like anyone, he sought water to slake his thirst.

However, the woman at the well was also thirsty; but her thirst was of a different kind.  She was stunned because Jesus, a man and a Jew, spoke to her, a woman and a Samaritan.  The woman asked Jesus how he planned to get water because he had nothing to draw it with and the well was deep.  And Jesus answered her by saying, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14“but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”  (John 4:13-14)

Jesus went straight to the woman's area of need.  He used the situation in which he found himself to tell this woman the good news.  Her need was more than physical.  She could meet the physical need by returning to the well daily and retrieving water.  However, all the water in the world would never quench the thirst in her spirit.  Water is necessary to preserve physical life but it cannot give a reason for living.  Jesus offered the woman living water, coming from within; and that is just what she needed and wanted.

Look around you today.  Perhaps you are in an office, a classroom, a work station, or some other area.  Chances are there is a water fountain or water station in your place of work.  How often do you see people there getting a drink?  How often do these same people return each day?  The water they drink is good only for a short while and then it has to be replenished.

As you go about your work today, share a cup of living water with those around you.  So many people are thirsty, so many of them long to stop drawing water from the well.  Will you help them by giving them the only water that can truly satisfy?  If you knew of someone who, on a hot day, had nothing to drink, wouldn't you offer them a cup of water?  Take a look around.  The world is a hot, dry, barren place.  We have access to a constant supply of water.  What is stopping us from sharing it today?