I took this picture a couple of weeks ago, obviously. The snow has melted and you can feel Spring in the air. Yes! I had just filled the trough that morning and Paige had walked over and lapped up big gulps of water. The air was super dry and she was super thirsty. I love watching her drink. Twelve years ago, when we first got her, she wouldn’t drink. It really was the proverbial, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink thing.
You see, Paige took a step down when she came to us at three years old. She had been used to a cushy life, or what she thought was the cushy life. She had a little prima donna going on – notice the word had. We played along with that game for a while and then came to our senses and moved her out into the field. She shared a field with our first horse, Logan, may she rest in peace. She has shared a field with Reese for the past few years.
Back to why I love watching Paige drink…when we first put her out into the field with Logan, Paige had a problem. She wouldn’t drink. Of course, it was August, the hottest time of the year and the most crucial for horses to drink. The Tuscarora Creek flowed through the field they shared. The drinking spot was tucked in among some trees and actually was a great refreshing spot. Sip some super cold water under a canopy of trees with a breeze in the dead of summer, it was idyllic, who wouldn’t love that? Paige.
For several weeks we tried to coax her into drinking out of the creek. She was having nothing of that. For the first four years of her life, she had never drank out of anything except a five gallon bucket. The sight of flowing water, no matter how slight, caused quite a quandary for her. She was thirsty, but afraid to drink, so she would shy away. Other than grass, horses only need two things to survive – a windbreak and water. Lack of water is life-threatening for them. One of the words horse people fear the most is “colic,” which can be caused by dehydration. So, for weeks we tried everything we knew. Three times a day we would carry buckets of water to her and she would drink. We walked to the creek with Logan leading the way and she would follow at a safe distance, but that was it. We filled the bucket and put it in the stream of water and she’d look at it with her big beautiful worried eyes. She didn’t know what to do with it. Eventually, with gentle but persistent encouragement and Logan leading the way, she finally took a sip of the life giving water.
“But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said,” and this a very deep well. Where would you get this living water?
John 4:11
Do you ever feel like that? I don’t have a rope or a bucket but man do I need a drink of water? Do you ever feel so dry you don’t think you can stand it? Do you drink from every worldly well trying to quench that thirst?
“People soon become thirsty again after drinking this water. But the water I give them takes away thirst altogether. It becomes a perpetual spring within them, giving them eternal life.”
John 4:13-14
Yes! Refreshment, for the body and the soul. Isn’t that what we all need when we’re dry, just a sip of cool refreshing life giving water? But, aren’t we sometimes like Paige? We are so thirsty. We see the water but we do not drink? We know we need that water to survive for all eternity, but we are afraid, we’re skittish, we shy away.
We can relate, right? But the beauty of drinking Jesus’s water is that it is perpetual, never ending, unceasing, eternal life giving. Even when we feel dry, we need only drink of The Word – that continuous stream of life giving living water.
Are you thirsty
Are you empty
Come and drink these living waters
Tired and broken
Peace unspoken
Rest beside these living waters
Christ is calling
Find refreshing
At the cross of living waters
Lay your life down
All the old gone
Rise up in these living waters
There’s a river that flows
With mercy and love
Bringing joy to the city of our God
There our hope is secure
Do not fear anymore
Praise the Lord of living waters
Spirit moving
Mercy washing
Healing in these living waters
Lead your children
To the shoreline
Life is in these living waters
Are you thirsty
Are you empty
Come and drink these living waters
Love forgiveness
Vast and boundless
Christ He is our living waters
There’s a river that flows
With mercy and love
Bringing joy to the city of our God
There our hope is secure
Do not fear anymore
Praise the Lord of living waters
There our hope is secure
Do not fear anymore
Praise the Lord of living waters
Keith and Kristyn Getty
PERSIST
Isaiah Chapter 55
John 7:32-53
PURSUE
Our eternity is secure when we lap up the Living Waters. Forever is a very long time.