Thoughts for the Day

On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.”’ Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

(Church in Wales Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

When I was 19 years old I had been married for a year and Adrian and the RAF posted us to Cyprus in the August. Life was pretty idylic as we both had jobs and would be on the beach by about 2pm at Famagusta. Life was entirely different to England in the 60's, and one of the things that I noticed more than anything else was the need to drink more. When we went food shopping in the nearby shops we would always be welcomed in, given a chair and a cold drink. I noticed that I could only go 100 yards or so without wanting another cold drink. And when we visited the ancient city of Salamis exploring the tombs with the remains of chariots and the skeletons of horses, I can remember feeling desperate under the hot sun for a drink of water.

In our reading from John's Gospel we see Jesus on the last day of the Feast of the Tabernacles. This feast has an emphasis on water, and on how God had provided the people of Israel with water when they were in the desert before they arrived in Canaan. When we are thirsty we need a drink - we lack water we might say. Jesus uses the metaphor about water when he says 'anyone who is thirsty come to me'. As with a thirst for water we need to realise our need, not in this case a desire for physical water, but a spiritual need to quench a thirst for someone in whom to trust and in whom to have faith. Jesus says he is the person who will quench our spiritual needs.

Lord Jesus,
You are our living water.
You promise to quench our spiritual thirst
when we come to You.
May we trust in Your offer
and drink of You
so that we may be refreshed
and renewed each day.
Amen.