So, how many tumblers do you have? We seem to be living in a time of tumblers. Videos have even been made of kitchen cupboards filled with tumblers, and I know some people who carry around a tumbler of tea or water with them wherever they go.
Why the fascination with tumblers? One could argue that we desire our thirst to be quenched at all times and that our drinks be kept as cold as they can be whenever we want a drink.
On a deeper level, I wonder, too, if tumblers are an emotional crutch for satisfying our broader thirsts for comfort, love, fulfillment and happiness. But tumblers run dry and the liquids within grow warm, and we start with new tumblers the next day.
I say all this as a modern-day prelude to the conversation Jesus had with the woman at the well. She had a thirst for companionship, for love, for purpose in her life, and she knew that the water at the well could not quell those thirsts. But Jesus told her, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). The woman naturally responded, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty” (John 4:15).
She recognized that Jesus was the only one who could quench her thirsting soul. We need to remember that too. Each time we take a tumbler with us somewhere, we must remind ourselves that only the Living Water of Jesus fills us with the salvation we need through his life, death and resurrection that our once-thirsty spirits may never thirst again.
