In the 21st Century there are professionals that have well-driving businesses. They come onto a property with their big rigs and put down a pipe into the ground until they reach fresh water. Modern wells usually go deep enough they will never run dry.
Years I ago I lived in an 150-year old farmhouse with a well in the cellar that was only 20-feet deep. I know that because every couple of years we had to hire a well man to pull up the pipe and replace the screen at the bottom. One day it ran dry. There was just no more water at that depth. So, we had to hire one of those big rigs to come onto the property and sink a new well, this time much deeper.
In Bible days, wells were usually community places where everyone in the community came to congregate and resource water, a necessity for life. It was here that Jesus met thew Woman at the Well in John 4. He struck up a conversation with her about “Living Water” from a well within her that would never run dry.
That well is the Holy Spirit that resides inside every believer. It is possible to have the Living Water within us and yet die of thirst because we don’t drink. Don’t live a parched life; drink deeply. Take Jesus at His word.
Tags: thirst, water, well
We are now in a serious drought and no end is in sight. My lawn is brown and stopped growing weeks ago (except around trees where I’ve watered it). Growth on the newer trees is visibly retarded. The corn and bean fields are parched and harvest yields will most likely be seriously diminished.
Are there some lessons we can learn? Does lack of rain teach us anything?
- Lack of rain affects growth, just as lack of an outpouring of God’s Spirit hinders our spiritual growth.
- The ground cries out for moisture, just as the deer pants for water.
- Drought makes even unbelievers pray for rain.
- Rain is never appreciated as much as when it has been missed.
- You can’t make it rain; you can only wait for it.
David expressed this well in Psalm 63:1. Perhaps it would do well to make this your prayer in the desert:
O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Tags: drought, dry, rain, thirst, water
When DeKalb County was first laid out by surveyors, it was laid out on a grid and divided into one square mile Sections. A Section would then be sold to families in Quarter Sections, or smaller amounts.
When I was a teenager I worked for a produce farmer in the southeast corner of this county. One hot summer day we were bailing hay and stopped for water in the center of a Section. A half mile from the nearest road, there was this huge old brick house, long abandoned. But it had an old hand pump outside that had the sweetest water you’ve ever tasted. When you’re thirsty and dry and covered with sweat and chaff, that well water was thoroughly thirst quenching.
The final words of the Bible, in Revelation 22:17, record: “Whoever is thirsty, let him come, and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” Drink deeply while we still have time.
Tags: refresh, thirst, water