Water

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 9
 
We are hearing a lot about water these days. Pure fresh water is harder and harder to obtain. Wells must be drilled deeper, restrictions on use are more severe, and drought conditions seem to be increasing almost all around the globe.
What can we do about it? All kinds of suggestions are made, from simple, little ones like “harvesting” water from rooftops by funneling rain into rain barrels (a really good idea in great grandpa’s day, but he didn’t have to provide for modern cities and industries and agriculture) to grandiose schemes that look wildly impossible.
A prince of Saudi Arabia was once reported to be in consultation with a French firm with a plan to bring fresh water to the Persian Gulf by towing icebergs to the Red Sea Port of Jidda. When the bergs reached Jidda, they would be cut up and allowed to melt in floating aqueducts. Then the fresh water would be pumped into onshore lines.
The backers of the scheme figured that “trains” of icebergs could bring back fresh water at “economical prices.” The distances the icebergs would travel would be about 5,700 miles—a long way for a tug! The cost would be in billions, and it would also wreak environmental havoc.
Just as water is absolutely necessary to physical life, so is the “water of life” necessary to our souls. But who could estimate the distance that Jesus, the Son of God, came to save—and make the gospel available to us?
“As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country” (Prov. 25:2525As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. (Proverbs 25:25)). Today the “good news,” the gospel, carries the good news of salvation to the four corners of the earth, and thousands are drinking at the stream.
But will the river of God’s grace, the water of salvation, flow on forever? No. God has said, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man” (Gen. 6:33And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. (Genesis 6:3)).
Oh, come to the One who cries to you even now: “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink” (John 7:3737In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. (John 7:37)).
Do not delay, or when the day of salvation ends with the coming of the Lord, you will be left behind.
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Behold, I freely give,
The living water-thirsty one,
Stoop down, and drink, and live.”
I came to Jesus, and I drank
Of that life-giving stream;
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
And now I live in Him!