My husband and I frequently travel internationally. When we travel, we often have to buy purified or natural spring water. Local water can make us sick.
Companies that provide the bottled water often advertise that they have acquired water from the source. The leading water supplier goes to great lengths to find spring waters that are pure and free from contaminants.
I have had stomach issues when I travel and I do what I can to avoid having them again. I rinse my toothbrush with the bottled water; I avoid salads (lettuces and vegetables have been rinsed with the local water); I have even learned that delicious local fruit drinks can be mixed with the local water and I no longer drink those.
All of this can be hard to remember. Occasionally I have forgotten to take the precautions I knew I should take – for one simple reason. The water coming out of the tap looks the same as the water that has been bottled. Looks can be deceiving.
This is an issue that must be dealt with. We cannot live without water. Although you cannot see the contaminants – such as E-coli, coliform bacteria, lead and nitrates – they can definitely make you sick.
Even though we need water, not all water can satisfy.
This is perhaps the best example of the relationship between the physical and the spiritual. Jesus made this point when He was speaking to a woman drawing water from a well. She was not drawing impure water, but because the need for water is constant, she had to return daily. Jesus used this physical need to make a spiritual connection with her. Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life (John 4:13-14).
There is no physical life without water. There is no everlasting spiritual life without the living water the Lord provides.
Jesus is truly the source of living water. As He did the woman in Samaria, He invites each of us to drink of the water He provides – pure and uncontaminated. In doing so, He shares His life and His Spirit with those who believe in Him.
On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38).
One Focus Ministries 