I was sitting on a fallen column at the Roman Colosseum today when a fellow traveller hopped up beside me. Looking tired out, she said, “They don’t sell water in here and I’m thirsty.” We chatted for about twenty minutes, not of spiritual things, but of the way things are easier these days than in Roman times; the way women are able to be more independent in our culture. She was from France, I from Canada, but we found common ground. At 64 years old, she seemed quite spry, but she informed me that she couldn’t get around this place like those twenty-year-olds could. A while later she set off again on her search for water within the walls of the Colosseum.
About that time, the Lord brought to mind the story of the woman at the well in John 4. Jesus told her, “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.”
Now, in Rome, one rarely has need to thirst. There are fountains all over the city with fresh drinking water that constantly flows. Walking through the hot streets, one can refill their water bottle and splash a little on their face every couple blocks. Just about the time that thirst begins to set in, another fountain is nearby. I have mentioned to Laura on more than one occasion how life saving those fountains are in this thirty-degree heat (especially when bottles of water often go for about 4 Euro, which is $6 Can.)
And here was this lovely woman, inside the thick stone walls of the Colosseum, unable to find water in a city that is overflowing with it. As I had my prayer and Bible time today (and drank of the Living Water), the Lord showed me how this applies so much to our lives. Jesus is there on every corner, a fountain of living water, available to everyone, running all the time, ready for us to drink of his life. His water overflows onto our feet, it’s so plentiful. It’s water for our souls - it brings us spiritual life everlasting. And yet we build these stone walls around our hearts and block him out. We thirst and we look for something else within the walls that will quench our thirst, but it is not the satisfying life-giving water that only Christ can bring.
Hundreds of years ago, an earthquake took down part of the outer walls of the Colosseum and the Lord showed me today that when we harden our hearts against him and build walls to block him out, he will send an earthquake to bring down the walls. He loves us enough to do whatever it takes to reach our hearts with living water. When we face trials and ‘earthquakes’ in our lives, it’s only him trying to reach us, seeking to tear down the stone walls that prevent us from seeing the fountain just outside.
Do you have walls built up around your heart? Have you been facing hardships and wondering why? Do you thirst for peace, for joy, for hope, for love? Do you yearn for fountains of water to spring up in your heart? This is your invitation to drink - to drink of life!
“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” - John 7:37-38
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