Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4:13-14
I recently heard of a fascinating discovery made by a team of zoologists. They discovered a type of Gazelle found in the deserts of Saudi Arabia has the ability to shrink its vital organs during seasons of drought. Is that crazy? They can shrink their liver and even their heart, so their body will demand less oxygen and water. Shrinking your heart is necessary if you are a Gazelle in the desert, but it’s terrifying if you’re a man or woman designed by God to LOVE God and people.
We have all had seasons of drought in our life. Moments when God feels distant, none of our relationships refresh. In John 4, we read of a Samaritan woman who has been drinking from the wrong wells. We learn she has made a series of poor decisions, looking for satisfaction in the arms of men, leaving her thirsty and unsatisfied at every turn. She has had 5 different husbands and is so filled with shame she is forced to draw water in the scorching middle eastern heat at midday. She chooses to shrink her heart rather than risk the pain of hope unfulfilled. All that was about to change. Jesus approaches her and asks for a drink. This is an extremely unexpected request as she is a Samaritan, and He is a Jew. He is a rabbi, and she is a woman. Little did she know, Jesus would give her a drink. A drink from a well that will never run dry and always satisfies. A drink from the life giving, soul quenching Holy Spirit. Life in the Spirit remains available to us today. Rather than shrinking our heart, let’s run to the well.