I wanted again the dark and lonely canyons where only echoes lived, the crash and roar of waters charging between the boulders, hurling themselves against a rocky wall…I wanted to skirt the deadfalls, gather the dead sticks from the ground, build a fire of cedar or pine, and smell the smoke.”
–Louis L’Amour (Bendigo Shafter)
“So Moses cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. Moses threw it into the water, and this made the water good to drink.”
–Exodus 15:25 (NLT)
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“All day I face the barren waste
Without the taste of water,
Cool Water.”
—Bob Nolan
Perhaps it’s the nostalgia brought on by old age, or the thought that there are places I’ve been that I’ll never get back to see. Add to that the many places I want to go but the ol’ rheumatize won’t let me. There are those dark canyons with the water roaring with its rush to lower elevation that I would like to see. Guess they’ll just have to play in my mind.
It makes me think of times when all I craved was a drink of cool water. It may have been on the ballfield, on the job, while out in the woods, or just hankerin’ for that refreshing liquid. “Gulp, gulp, gulp, ahhhh.” Guzzle that water. When the body is depleted nothing is better or more satisfying than cool water.
The Israelites were thirsty out in the wilderness, when finally they came to water. But the water was bitter. I don’t know if that meant it was full of alkali or some other kind of mineral, but something made it so it was undrinkable. Moses was instructed to throw a piece of wood in it and the water became “sweet.” Now, I’ve had some bad water in my time. There has been water full of sulfur that I’ve tasted, and other times it was full of sodium. But then I’ve tasted the refreshing water of a mountain stream (sure can’t do that anymore because of the parasites).
The first time we come to Jesus it is the same way. He told the woman at the well that He offered water from which she would never thirst again. When we truly come to the Lord the thirst is slackened and all we want is water from His never-ending stream.
“I thirsted in the barren land of sin and shame,
And nothing satisfying there I found;
But to the blessed cross of Christ one day I came,
Where springs of living water did abound.”
–John W. Peterson
However, often there comes to the believer a thirst. For some reason we find ourselves in a barren wilderness, not of sin, but one of drought, of harshness, of dryness. Sometimes we get there by accident, sometimes of our own volition, and often we are sent there by the Lord. Oh, just for a drink of that cool water when we are in the barren wilderness of the soul. When the soul is depleted nothing is better or more satisfying than water–water that flows from the blessed Holy Spirit; water that burst forth from the Rock to quench our longing.
“How sweet the living water from the hills of God,
It makes me glad and happy all the way;
Now glory grace and blessing mark the path I’ve trod,
I’m shouting ‘Hallelujah’ ev’ry day.”
Drink at the spring of living water; it will satisfy the soul. Jesus said that He gives water that “become a perpetual spring within…”.(John 4:14, NLT) I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a little thirsty; thirsty for some of that cool, clear water.