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"Then they said to the woman.
'Now we believe, not because of what you said,
for we ourselves have heard Him
and we know that this is indeed the Christ,
the Savior of the world.'"
John 4:42
Girlfriends, it is SUMMER, my favorite time of the year. School's out, warm weather, longer days, sweaty hikes, swimming, picnics, and...watermelon!
I love watermelon!
I suppose my love of season and of fruit are intertwined: Summer means watermelon, watermelon means summer. As soon as I see those massive green orbs appearing near the grocery store entrances, I begin my happy dance. Summer. Summer. Summer. Yum. Yum. Yum. I boogie my way over to the display and start thumping away. You know I have no idea why I am knuckle rapping fruit? Eventually I simply choose the biggest, most perfectly shaped one I can lift out of the bin. Slicing it open at home, I hold my breath until I see the bright redness beckoning me from inside. I grab a spoon and dig in. (Hey, if the guys can drink milk from the jug, I can eat out of my own watermelon, right?) I savor the sweetness and enjoy the thirst-quenching delight of my lovely watermelon, which I then place in the refrigerator to chill. Sweating in the summer heat stimulates my thirst, and icy, cold watermelon quenches it. All summer long, I am craving the sugary water in the melon.
Living Water
Did you know that long ago another woman craved satisfying water? Walking in the heat of the day, carrying an empty pot, this woman from a city called Sychar went to fill her vessel. When she arrived at her destination, she found something far greater than reservoir water, although she did not know it immediately. To her surprise, a man was sitting on the well. When the woman approached, he told her to give him a drink. The woman was undoubtedly surprised, since this man was a Jew and she was a Samaritan woman. The Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. She voiced these facts, and the man replied, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." John 4:10
Now the woman respectfully questioned this claim, which appeared to place this man above the great Jacob, who created the well and used it himself and for his sons. She said to the man, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?" John 4:11
Girlfriends, the answer she received is the same answer you would get today if you were to ask this question--Where then do you get that living water? And let me tell you, as much as I love it, the answer is NOT 'from watermelon!'
"[He] said to her, 'Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water 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.' The woman said to Him, 'Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.' " John 4:13-15
The Source
Ladies, the man sitting on the well speaking to this parched woman is Jesus...the same Jesus sitting on your source of water, waiting for you to come seeking. Jesus knew all the things this woman ever did, and He revealed Himself to her as the Messiah. In the same way, He knows all you have ever done, and He is still revealing Himself as the Messiah yet today. Jesus called out her sins, yet continued to offer the gift of Himself, the living source of eternal life, the water of salvation, that she should no more lust after the water that does not satisfy (five husbands and present lover.) The woman accepted the drink, and she left her waterpot to return to the city and tell the men of the Man who told her all things she ever did. (John 4:28)
How about you? Are you in a spiritual drought? Perhaps you have never even tasted the living water because you mistakenly believe that if Jesus knew your sin, He would not offer you a drop.Or maybe you keep running back to that same source of satisfaction over and over and over again because your desire is never satisfied.
Girlfriends, forget the well and come to the Savior's bubbling fountain. Do what Jesus told the Samaritan woman in verse 10: "You would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." ASK! Confess your sin as an illegitimate source of temporary gratification. Give it up; leave your waterpot behind. Go forth to"worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him." John 4:23
I pray today that the next drink you take will come from God and become in you that "fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."
P.S. And then you can probably go have a slice of watermelon! After all, didn't God speak about the fruit of the Spirit? Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control....and the one I think Paul forgot--WATERMELON!!!
Go in Peace, Sisters!
