Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."  (John 4:13-14)

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."  (John 7:38-39)

For a pastor or Bible teacher, life is a steady flow of illustrations streaming  by.   I love to dip into the current of life to scoop up treasures.     I’ve discovered that when my heart is in tune, God has jewels of truth  that can be discovered within the streams of life.   

I was standing on main street waiting for some friends when one of those surges in the flow happened for me.   I was watching the snowmelt dripping off a store’s awning.   The sun was out and it was a beautiful day, but the air and wind were such that the ground was still a freezing temperature.    The melting snow dripping onto the frozen surface was forming a sheet of ice.

I reflected on the dripping water.   I want that living water the Jesus spoke of to be penetrating unto the wellsprings of my heart.   Although God has often brought seasons of accelerated growth, like living water through a fire hose that took effort to capture every drop, most of the time God’s word to me and work in me has been  like the steady drip, drip, drip of a spiritual IV.   Perhaps God’s patient design in that is for maximum penetration into the recesses of my heart.   

I want my heart to be soft and warm, good soil for the word of God to penetrate deeply.   God, help me to avoid being a  “frozen chosen,”   like the surface of that main street sidewalk where the ice was forming.   

Then it happened.  A lady walking toward us slipped on that ice and took a bad fall.    After helping her to her car, we reflected.    People can fall because of ice, travelers can crash due to frozen surfaces, and even more so because of cold hearts.

Father, may our lives never settle into frozen passivity causing others to slip.   May the warmth of your wellsprings flow with abundant life, offering refreshment to those along the banks of our journey.  Make us thirsty for more of you.