Come and drink
One hot afternoon I was working in the apple orchard with my grandfather as a teenager. He asked me to bring him the water jug so that he could take a long sip of Adam's Ale (which means pure water). That was his flowery expression for fresh still water. Just as pure water is physically refreshing, God's Word enlivens our spirits when we are in spiritual training.
Consider the words of the prophet Isaiah: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it fruitful and bring it to life, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it will accomplish that which I purpose, and it will succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Jesaja 55,10-11).
Much of the area of Israel where these words were written thousands of years ago is dry to say the least. Precipitation meant not only the difference between a bad harvest and a good harvest, but sometimes between life and death.
In these words of Isaiah, God speaks of his word, his creative presence, which engages with the world. A metaphor he repeatedly uses is water, rain, and snow, which give us fertility and life. They are signs of God's presence. "Instead of thorns, let cypress trees spring up, and instead of nettles, let myrtle trees spring up; and it shall be for the Lord's praise, and for an everlasting sign that will not pass away." (Jesaja 55,13).
Does this sound familiar? Think of the curse when Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden: “Through painful toil you shall eat food from the ground all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall produce for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.” (1. Mose 3,17-18).
In these verses we see the opposite of that - the promise of blessings and abundance, rather than more desert and loss. In the west in particular, our needs are more than met. Yet we still have the drought and thorns and thistles in our hearts. We are in a desert of souls.
We desperately need the precious rain and wonderful renewal of God in our lives that are falling on us. Community, worship and service to the broken are the nourishing and strengthening places where we can meet God.
Are you thirsty today? Tired of the thorns that grow from jealousy, the thistles that sprout with anger, the arid desert that arise from demands, stress, frustration and struggles?
Jesus offers you living, eternal water: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never be thirsty again. The water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (Joh 4,14).
Jesus is the fresh source. Come and drink some of the water that always flows. It's what keeps the world alive!
from Greg Williams
