Satisfying Our Thirst

In the poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a crew of sailors set sail and for a while experience smooth sailing. Eventually a storm drives the ship south until they reach the Antarctic waters where they become stuck in the ice. Then an albatross appears and leads them out of the icy sea only to be shot and killed by one of the sailors. A south wind blows the ship northward near the equator. The wind suddenly ceases to blow and the ship remains stationary for days. This proves to be worse than being stuck in the ice because of the unbearable heat which causes them extreme thirst. Thus the familiar line, “Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”

I can’t imagine what it would be like to not have water to drink. Water has always been available to me. When I was a boy well water was kept in a bucket in the kitchen. If  someone wanted a drink of water they would take an or metal dipper that hung on the side of the bucket and dip out some water. Everyone drank from the same dipper. I still have that old dipper, but of course now we get our water from the tap or get a bottle of water to quench our thirst. Unquenched thirst must be a terrible thing. A person can’t live very long without water. If we don’t drink water we become dehydrated and die.

Jesus told a Samaritan woman who had come to a well in the center of town to draw water, this very thing. He said, “Everyone who drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks the water that I give will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman asked Jesus to give her the water he was talking about so she wouldn’t have to come to the well everyday to draw water. She hadn’t quite caught on to what Jesus was telling her. But Jesus told  her about a different kind of thirst, a spiritual thirst. It was the knowledge of her sin that necessitated her need for the “living water” that only Jesus provided. The woman and all mankind must realize their sin before they know the kind of thirst that makes them desire living water. Once we repent and ask Jesus to forgive us we will receive an abundant spring of living water that assures us eternal life. We rejoice when one comes and drinks from the the well of living water.