Water
It's a very hot day and you've walked a long way. What price a cup of cold water? Some of us may recall being taught a theory in economics that involved the way the relative value of water and diamonds changed dramatically if there was no water.
A spring of water gushing up cold and pure for ever is a powerful and dramatic picture for a woman who has to fetch her water in a jug from a well - or a river or a muddy ditch. For those of us with half a dozen taps delivering cold water in one house, the metaphor may lose some of its immediate impact.
Why does Jesus speak about the living water that quenches all thirst for ever? Why does he use parables and allegories, pictures and metaphors? Why? Because he has to. Because he is the Lord of Creation and we are creatures. Because he wants to help us understand enormous mind-challenging truths. He is like an astrophysicist explaining the distances of space to his young children.
So we need to allow ourselves time to think about water; to reflect on our total and absolute dependence on water for life and health; to delight in the beauty of water in all its forms - cups of tea, glaciers, waterfalls, hot showers, rain and snow. Then we can see that he is offering this woman - and anyone else - the free gift of life, abundant and fully satisfying for ever, a spring of living water - in us - gushing up and buoying us up into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Isaiah used a similar picture:
'Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you that have no money come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost' (Isaiah 55:1).
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