February 3

The Fountain Of Life

But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life. — John 4:14 BSB

One morning, when the land was covered in the flowers of spring, a woman woke up in the little town of Sychar, nestled between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. She had no idea that day would not only change her life but the lives of countless others. Her story would be preserved in the history of the world, and her first steps would lead, as tradition says, to martyrdom.

She was a woman of deep passions and desires. Her heart was like a well—deep, and she had tried to fill it with human love, only to be disappointed. She had given up on love altogether. Her reputation was ruined, and her neighbors shunned her, forcing her to draw water from the well in the heat of noon, rather than in the cool of the evening when the other women gathered.

Yet she was not without faith. She knew the ancient traditions of Jacob, who had lived near these mountains and drunk from this very well. She believed in the old religion, the one that existed before the division between Jew and Samaritan, and she had heard many debates about the competing claims of the temples in Jerusalem and Gerizim. She also believed that one day the Messiah would come and explain everything. But in the meantime, her heart was weary and empty. Her lonely trip to the well each day reflected her inner thirst: “Give me something,” she seemed to say, “anything to quench this soul-thirst and restore what the years have taken away.”

Is she not a symbol of so many people today? Some of you have drunk from every well dug by human hands, only to find them empty or bitter. You have turned away from it all, echoing the ancient cry: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." Is this your story too, my friend? If so, the One who went out of His way to find and help this broken woman is near you too. He waits to open those hidden springs of living water, of which, if anyone drinks, they will never thirst again.

Prayer

O Christ, who sat at Jacob's well, give me to drink of the water of life, and let me hear Your voice, which is like music to my soul. Let the spring You spoke of rise up within me to eternal life. Amen.