Thought for the month

This Spring in Britain has been the driest in 69 years. Some areas have received significantly less rainfall than average. Many rivers have reached exceptionally low levels and reservoirs are noticeably lower than usual. Water companies are beginning to prepare drought plans. Half the people in the world experience severe water shortage for at least part of the year and 2 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water.

Shortage of water presents us with a big challenge. Water is essential for life. We need it and so do our animals and crops. One of the reasons our earth abounds with life is because of the abundance of water. In the past we may have taken it for granted that we had a reliable supply of fresh drinking water, but now we are becoming increasingly aware of how precious water is.

Jesus once met a woman at a well. She had come in the middle of the day with her water jar to draw water for her and her family and to carry it home. Many people in the world today must still carry water to their homes. It is a very tiring job which must be done every day in order to sustain life. This woman spent most of the day doing the things necessary for her and her family to survive. As she walked to and from the well every day, she must have often wondered what life was all about. How could she find meaning in her life amidst the drudgery of her everyday routine?

Many people today ask the same questions. Why am I here? What is the meaning of life? Our secular society tells us there is no ultimate meaning to life. We must just make the best of it. I’m so glad that isn’t true. Jesus knew the woman’s life was hard; that she didn’t know either a deep inner fulfilment and satisfaction or a certain hope for the future. So, he said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 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.” Taking up this theme, the hymnwriter Horatius Bonar wrote, “I heard the voice of Jesus say, Behold I freely give the living water – thirsty one, stoop down and drink and live! I came to Jesus, and I drank of that live-giving stream; my thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in him.”