Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water…” – John 4:13-15a

I checked my recent history and it has been almost a month since I featured a photograph of the Tar in this space. The river is always different, of course, but the recent drought has left the river looking especially tired.

Not just tired but thirsty. Imagine a river looking thirsty! Of course it’s probably not going to run dry, because The Tar captures rainfall and spring water from a vast hinterland. But it does gets stressed sometimes….

So I was leaning on the bridge this morning, looking upstream, when it occurred to me that when Jesus talked about giving us “living water” he had in mind not just refreshing us (me, and you) but us then being a refreshment to the world.

And I had this vision of streams of pure water running out from the church and baptizing this parched world in a refreshing grace, constantly blessing those we come into contact with, sharing the kind of life offered by a cool drink or a shower on one of these sweltering summer days.

I had this vision of streams of pure water running out from the church and baptizing this parched world in a refreshing grace, constantly blessing those we come into contact with, sharing the kind of life offered by a cool drink or a shower on one of these sweltering summer days…

Living water creating a river of life!

Think about how that might work. What if the simple fact of your presence somewhere, anywhere, was all the evidence the world needs that the river has not run dry.

Imagine a river looking tired and thirsty! Imagine a church looking tired and thirsty… when all we have to do is show up and drink deeply… and all we must do is to baptize this world with the refreshing grace of Jesus.

In love and because of love – DEREK