Water of Life

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

John 4:14

So we all drink water, or should do. Our bodies are constructed of about 60% water and it needs to constantly be renewed or else we get dehydrated. As someone who works outside in the heat, I’ve suffered from minor dehydration a number of times. The biggest symptom for me is a headache, so when it’s hot outside and I suddenly get a headache I immediately get my water bottle or Gatorade and drink. If I don’t need liquid, it just means that my body will eliminate it, but if I do need it then saved myself from more serious illness.

Water quality is one of the biggest issues for some of the largest populations in the world. Places in Africa have very little fresh water, India has fresh water but it’s highly polluted and dangerous to drink, but people do drink it. In Canada we are fairly lucky because we have many lakes that are clean and provide ample safe drinking water.

In Antarctica there are large glaciers that eventually drop large icebergs into the ocean, called calving, and they make their way towards the equator. These icebergs contain a huge amount of fresh water, if only we had a reliable way to harvest them from the ocean and allow them to melt. As climate change continues water may become a much more important resource and battles may be fought to gain control of supplies.

In the Book of John we see a number of references to Jesus being the water of life. (John 4:13-14, 7:38-39) as we read these verses we see that if we partake of the water of life, Jesus Christ, we will never be thirsty again. But what exactly are we being told here?

We are supposed to keep our bodies healthy and only put into it things things that are clean. (https://shinysideup.ca/2019/12/11/the-temple/). And that includes drinking clean water to quench our thirst. I keep a bottle of fresh water around me all the time and drink from it regularly. But Jesus also wants us to drink from His water which will provide us with eternal life and we’ll never thirst. If we feast on Jesus’ water we gain His knowledge and His understanding and His guidance towards eternal life.

I’ve struggled with some of God’s rules as I began my Christian journey in 2014. Once baptized in 2017, I took His words much more seriously. I repented on my sins of the past and cleared them from the people I’ve hurt. I consider my body a temple and try to only put clean things inside it (https://shinysideup.ca/2018/06/27/its-all-about-the-pork/). This doesn’t make me a better person than you, it’s just my choice to follow God’s dietary laws as He intended us to do. This includes remembering to drink enough of literal water along with a healthy dose of spiritual water. Both of these are essential to life and eternal life.

God bless.