Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Today’s text

John 4:7-10

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, 'Give me something to drink.' His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, 'You are a Jew. How is it that you ask me, a Samaritan, for something to drink?' Jews, of course, do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus replied to her: If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me something to drink,' you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water.

Reflection

If you only knew … .

But I do know. I have drank the water of life and been refreshed by its sweetness. I have been lifted beyond the plane of earthly concern to know that everything I strive for on this earth is nothing compared with the ecstasy of being encompassed in the mystery of a love that has neither beginning nor end.

I know. I have dwelt in that delicious space where all earthly care is illusion and only you are real.

And I want to return, to flee this desert and rest at the well of life where all that matters is being with you, tipping high the cup until the water runs down my chin with no worries because there is always more.

It is hard to say what this water is. Divine presence? If so, it is a presence at once in me and surrounding all that is. It fills me with complete peace and freedom from every anxiety--and the knowledge that only this … flow of love … matters.

If you only knew ... .

I have known, yet the concerns of this age--human respect, accomplishment, reputation, the demands of time and work--replace you in my soul.

There is no time to sit and drink, no time for the refreshment of life, no time just to be with you at the well of life waiting for the moment when the waters of your soul fill my own and teach me again what I already know--and what I so desperately want to feel … again.

So again I pause from all doing and ask, “Give me something to drink. I want to live.”

Pr. David L. Miller