The first time that I can remember ever being really, really thirsty was in a gym class in seventh grade. We had had a “work out” involving apparatus and mats, and finally a “few” laps around the gym. We were all sitting on the floor around the gym teacher, and to this day I have no idea what she was saying, as I was fantasizing a cold glass of water, and then I thought of a class of 7UP. It occurred to me that this might be the way that people living in deserts felt when they ran out of water. I would have been desperate, except that I remembered that there was a drinking fountain on the way to the girls’ locker room.

Thirst is a compelling sensation that takes he place of all other interests when it is strong. Isaiah the prophet spoke God’s words of invitation when he wrote: Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come buy and eat!. . . Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good. . . Give ear and come to me; listen that you may live.”(Isaiah 55:1&3) Thirst can be an all consuming need when we are dry; and relieving thirst is a great fulfillment of our need and desire.

Hundreds of years after God’s words to Isaiah, Jesus himself spoke of thirst, and the only real way to quench it: On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. (John 7:37-39) This is one of the strongest metaphors for God’s relationship to His people and for our relationship to Him.

On the cross, Jesus himself experienced his own need for the words from Isaiah. It’s even more poignant in the context of Jesus’ earlier words: Jesus said, “I thirst”. . . and when he had receive the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished!” With that he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:28) Physical thirst is perhaps the closest picture of spiritual thirst. Jesus thirsted in response to his Father’s call to “come all you who are thirsty”. All of this was displayed in front of his mother and a few others, including John, for their benefit as well as ours, that we may follow the stream and know that it leads to the living water in Jesus and our Father God.

Love in Him,

Prue