Living Water

Deuteronomy 32:2 – Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.

As we search for a home church here in our new home of Virginia, the picture of Jesus as water came to mind. The Bible says He offers living water, so that if we drink it we’re never thirsty again. But I was thinking more along the lines of a body of water and our relationship to it.

Let’s see if I can explain myself…

When I go to the beach, I am perfectly content to walk along the sand, maybe get my toes wet, admire the beauty of crashing waves from the safety of land. I’m not afraid of the water, per say, as long as I have a boat or the luxury of a pool! I can swim, but the unfamiliarity of the ocean and what lurks just beyond my range of sight (which for me is not that far!) gets me nervous. It has all my life. I’ve been on some of the most beautiful beaches in the world – Trunk Bay in St. John for instance – and yet I spent the entire time anchored to the beach while my mother snorkeled by herself the underwater national park full of living treasures like coral and tropical fish.

My Daniel, on the other hand, must explore the depths. My surfer dude grew up splitting time between both coasts, so he is familiar with large bodies of wild water. He has no fear swimming out, diving down, finding what he can find – like that living sand dollar I pictured here a couple posts back. 

While my phobias are not likely to change this late in life concerning ocean swimming, I have a deep desire that my spiritual life more resembles my Daniel’s passion. If Jesus is the Living Water, I don’t want to just admire Him from the beach or simply get my toes wet. I don’t even want merely to skim along the surface like a water skier. When it comes to Jesus, I want to be a deep sea diver – immerse myself completely, plunge fearlessly below the tossing waves to the calm depths where the treasures are.

The Living Water I can literally immerse myself in is His Word, the Bible. We’re never too old or young, too bright or dull, experienced or just starting out to learn something every time we open His Book. Going to church, finding fellowship with other Believers and sitting under the shepherding care of a pastor, is a vital avenue to those Living Waters.

I pray you have found, and we find, a congregation committed to deep sea diving.

Hope you’re having a great week, Dry Ground friends! Keep on swimming!

(photos by photobucket.com)