Water, Water Everywhere, But Not a Drop in My Sink

I've been antsy all morning, eagerly anticipating my plumber's arrival ever since my pump quit working yesterday morning. Except for camping maybe, I've never been without water for so long.

I know I sound kind of whiny. There are women in this world who trek for miles, pitchers of water on their heads, to bring water from a well to their homes. Water is a precious and necessary commodity, and they're willing to hazard being raped, beaten, and murdered to get it.

By comparison, I've been blessed with store-bought gallons, a health club membership (for showers), a year-round stream in my backyard (for toilets), and hospitably generous neighbors. For me, a lack of running water indoors is only an inconvenience.  Still... I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I really, really, really like having indoor plumbing that brings water out of the ground straight to my tap on demand.

I can't even list all the ways I use water (rather extravagantly) throughout the course of my day. We drink it and cook with it. We use it for brushing our teeth, cleaning scraped knees, showering, flushing. I wipe counters, launder clothes, mop floors, clean dishes. We pour it on our houseplants, fill vases for cut flowers. The kids dash through the sprinkler and splash in pools for fun. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Currently, every time I wash my hands (which is quite a lot), I feel the precious liquid slipping through my fingers down the drain. Silently, I wish for a water-conserving suit like the desert people in Dune wear because at the moment, every activity from eating to playing is structured to save moisture.

In my obsessive thinking about water today, two passages came to mind -- one from John 4 and the other from John 7. 

Jesus answered and said to her [a Samaritan woman], “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.... 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.”

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.”

In my arid state of affairs, those verses sound glorious to me. I'm basking in the thought of water that springs up and rushes out, unchecked. Water that I don't have to fetch and carry. Everlasting water that doesn't run dry. Water that can't be seized or stolen. Water for all my needs -- for thirst, for cleansing, for pleasure. Refreshing, satiating water.

Bushkill Falls, PA