Gushing Forth

When I first started reading the Bible long years ago, one of my favorite New Testament stories was the story of Jesus and the woman of Samaria.  (John 4)  By the time I got to Young Harris College I had learned to play the guitar and sing, "Jesus met the woman at the well" and not too long afterwards it was a text which lent itself to some of my earlier attempts at preaching.  It is a story with a lot of stories within the main story of the encounter between the woman and Jesus.  And, it is full of the kind of details which always make for a good memorable story.

 

One of the details which has always stayed with me was the reference in verse six to Jacob's well.  A well as old as Jacob's story was still being used by folks for their daily water needs.  To those folks who came day after day, the well must have seemed like an inexhaustible supply of water.  Perhaps, there were times through the centuries when it turned up dry, but the water always returned and people such as this woman from Samaria continued to come.  It was at this well which had provided water for folks ever since the time of Jacob that Jesus paused and talked about the truly unending supply of nourishment.

 

In verse 14 we hear Him saying, "...those who drink of the water  that I will give them will never be thirsty.  The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life."  Here is a Word about unending inexhaustible abundance.  Here is a Word which tells us the source of our life is not found in the externals, but through the internal and always present presence of Jesus.  What He gives for living is not something which is simply enough or adequate, but something which gushes forth in abundance.