One of the wonderful memories I have of my Mama is remembering many of the bits of wisdom and expressions that came from her lips. I’ve come to know that many of those things were not original to her; but they were living water for my thirsty soul growing up and they are still precious to me, even today.
I thought of one as I stopped by the grocery store this week to pick up a few items. Walking down the aisle where the bottled water was, I remember how she frequently said: “When I’m really thirsty, nothing satisfies my thirst like a cold glass of water.” I may have thought of that saying of hers because I had read that day the lectionary scriptures from John 4 assigned for this Third Sunday in Lent. In it, Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman at a well. Jesus asked her for a drink of water and when she at first hesitated, Jesus told her of living water that could satisfy her thirsty soul for all eternity. Jesus was saying to this woman, “I know you are really thirsty to satisfy a very strong need in you; but nothing will satisfy the deepest longing within you, but the “Living Water” that I can give you.”
Mama, like the woman at the well, was speaking of satisfying a physical thirst. But God knows that for most of us, our greatest thirst isn’t physical, it’s spiritual. The season of Lent is a time of inner spiritual reflection examining the thirst within our spiritual self; then preparing for the “Living Water” God offers. God desires for each of us to be “A Thirsty Soul That Finds Living Water.”
Mama knew what she thirsted for physically and she knew what would satisfy it. I’m thankful that she also knew what she thirsted for spiritually and her legacy helped me and many others to be thirsty souls finding “Living Water.”
Join us for worship this Sunday at Covenant. It’s the day before Spring. We will satisfy your physical thirst and hunger with a cookout following morning worship where we will first try to help you be “A Thirsty Soul That Finds Living Water.” That’s my sermon title based on John 4:1-26.
Notes From JR 