The Standard August 3, 2024
Today it was good to see our neighbor’s rain gauge back in place, at the end of her driveway once again. Her farming family, like many in eastern North Caroline, cultivates acres of fields that a few weeks ago were desperate for water.
Pitt County experienced its third driest June in 105 years of recorded history, just under half of an inch, but was on track as of this writing for its second wettest July. With over 11.5 inches of rain last month, the county more than doubled July’s norm. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, Pitt and Greene counties had been in the “severe” category since late June, but got to the “moderate” classification the last week in July.
Our local farmers know all too well what a major impact needing water makes. It probably does not happen very often that you and I are truly parched, but most of us have experienced being unusually thirsty. Maybe we were hot and did not have access to a drink. July Fourth on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. comes to my mind. Perhaps we also have felt dried up emotionally or spiritually, deeply needing refreshment.
In the Gospel of John, we read of a woman who thought she was going in the heat of the day for physical water, but found herself engaged in a conversation about so much more.
“Now he [Jesus] had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.’ ‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?’ 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.’” John 4:4-14
Whether we are hot and thirsty or completely comfortable, we certainly can appreciate Jesus’ promise of living water and everlasting life. God’s presence within us, appreciated and nurtured, provides unmatched refreshment.
celiastone 