Cool Water

It's late ... my house warmed up today and I didn't pay attention until it was too late. So now I'm trying to get it cooled down. That's what happens in old brick buildings with no insulation. That's beside the point. So, I've got a cold bottle of water in front of me and the condensation is dripping all over the place. Welcome to Nebraska with it's heat and humidity.

When my sister in law, Janet moved out here several years ago, she moved from Colorado. Their first summer here, she just got mad all the time when she would find glasses of ice water dripping on her furniture. She simply did not want to accept that summer in Omaha was different than summer in Colorado where there was no humidity. She bought a lot of coasters that summer and over the years has finally grown to accept it like the rest of us have. I don't like it much either, but it's what I have to live with.

I was looking through my Bible today for a passage about service. One of the passages that I came across was from Matthew 10. Ok, that one's beside the point, too. As I was reading through the entire passage, though, I came to the end of it ... Matthew 10:42. "And if anyone gives a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."

When Jesus met with the woman from Samaria, he asked her for a cool drink of water. It was right there in the well, waiting to be drawn and offered to him. It was a gift she could give freely.

I love water. Years ago, I dated a young man who was doing a fellowship at Stanford while studying hydrodynamics. We talked a lot about water. I began to consider the power of water. It really is incredible. We've seen its destruction in the midwest as enormous amounts of water moved with power that isn't often seen.

There used to be a saw mill in the Boone River not far from our cabin. The movement of the water turned the mill wheel. Powerful.

Water dilutes, water is a solvent, water hydrates. All life requires water. Mesopotamia was the cradle of civilization because humanity congregated near water - near the Tigris and Euphrates.

When I turn on the water flow in the kitchen, I've been known to stare at it and simply thank God for this gift. It washes the grime from my hands, yet the same water quenches my thirst. It cleans the dishes and I use it to boil noodles.

I take water for granted sometimes, but Jesus didn't. He knew that cool water would nourish thirsty travelers who had been walking dusty roads. At the end of all of it, though, he offered living water. That would quench a thirst that we might not even recognize.