THIRSTY FOR WATER

Would those little people be equally happy if I replaced the water in their cups with styrofoam packing peanuts? Would they be refreshed if I filled their plastic pool with pine cones? What if the garden hose gave hot air instead of cool water?

The answer is so obvious.  They don’t need those things. Because they won’t bring relief. They know their thirst is for water.

The need is built in to their being, increased by the circumstances, and relieved by the right thing: water. 

Those awful substitutes, I wouldn’t do any of those things. I’d give them what their thirst called for: water. Because I love them.

What about the really little ones, who don’t realize what value there is in being hydrated? Loving parents offer them water, even if they don’t realize they need it. 

Parents supply water, call to them to come and drink, come and dunk, come and be showered.

Because they’re running, jumping, switching activities, and staying too long in the sun. They’re moving fast, chasing that freedom from schedules and structure. They don’t realize they need something.

Do you?  Do you realize when you’re lacking something?

DO YOU KNOW YOU’RE THIRSTY?

In a world that has us too long in the heat, too long chasing one thing and then another, we forget what we need. That basic need for water.

Water, the thing we cannot live without. 

You ever hear people talk about how long a human can go without water? I looked it up. Some say 3 days. Some say 3 weeks.  But what they say ultimately is the same: Water is vital. 

Without it, we will die.

I know that in Scripture there is a lot of talk about water, about thirst.

No doubt it is the perfect metaphor for satisfying an absolute need, for sustaining life. 

The Bible speaks of drinking water, of a spring welling up, of streams in the desert, rivers, of pouring water on thirsty land.

In Genesis 1 God said  “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.

Psalm 23 talks about being led by still waters. Isaiah 55 calls to those who are thirsty.

And there are more.

From Genesis to Revelation, the necessity of water is held up as an important message.

And you know me, and what I had to do. Because I wanted to see what the Bible said about water, about thirst. 

Yep. 

I wanted a list, a collection of the mentions of water and thirst.

And I was completely overwhelmed with the response. 

It actually left me breathless, seeing it all in one place like that.  

Here, let me show you: