Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask Me, and I would give you living water.” John 4:10
It had all the making of a Lazarus story. When I started this new chapter of my life, one of the things that I picked up at home was watering all the plants that needed a daily drink. Now this is no small undertaking. Generally speaking, it takes just about forty-five minutes from start to finish. And apparently it is one of my spiritual gifts since all the flowers (again there are quite a few) are happy and flourishing. You can almost see them smiling as I make my rounds.
Recently we were going to be gone for several days so Judy asked someone to take over my job. I must admit I was a little apprehensive about leaving my new friends but when we returned, they all looked happy which made me happy. Well, the morning after we got back, after some Jesus time, I went downstairs to join Judy on the patio to chat and stuff. As I sat down, I saw it—a casualty of my absenteeism. For all intent and purposes, this plant looked deader than a doornail. Oh, course I was shocked and asked Judy what in the world had happened. She said that apparently the water person had missed this particular plant and it had thirsted to death. If you look in the graphic for today in the lower right corner, you can see this dreadful scene.
Judy said that she thought it might not be too late, so she went ahead and gave it a good drink. I thought she might be either hopelessly hoping or trying to make me feel better. So, just in case there was a trial for murder, I took a picture for evidence. Well, I moved on with my day and several hours later I went back to see what had happened. Believe it or not, Lazarus had come back to life. The plant that looked beyond hope was fully perked up alive and breathing (well, as much as plants breath.) I was genuinely excited…so much so that I went out and took another picture.
There’s a great story and truth here—for plants but also for us humans. If a plant is deprived of water, well, it will die or, in this case, nearly die. For sure, it went from thriving to dying. Give that same plant some water and it can literally resurrect. We humans, like plants, need water to live, without it we won’t nearly die—we will die. But there is another kind of water we need just as badly—and that is the living water that only Jesus can give. If we choose to live without His living water, we can limp along pretending to live and ultimately, die spiritually—eternally separated from God! But wait!
When a person puts their faith and trust in Him—He gives them living water—a water that gives life to life and eternal life in eternity. Jesus bumped into a woman at a well and He told her about the living water. At first, she didn’t quite understand but before the conversation was over, she ran into her town and said, “Come see a man that told me everything I have ever done…surely this is the Messiah.” Well, they went and turned out the whole bunch got Jesus and His living water—and you can too.
Listen, life is too precious and eternity too long to miss the living water. If you will put your faith and trust in Jesus, you will find Him everything He promises to be. And there is something more. You will discover that no matter what you face…He will be there for you and with you. As always…He’s got this. Bro. Dewayne
Grits with Grace 