When Your Soul Is Thirsty

With joy you will drink deeply
    from the fountain of salvation!

In that wonderful day you will sing:
    “Thank the Lord! Praise his name!
Tell the nations what he has done.
    Let them know how mighty he is!

~Isaiah 12:3-4

 

I remember that it was in July when, on a family vacation, we stopped at a place called Bandelier, New Mexico so we could see the cliff dwellings of early Native Americans.  I was having a ball climbing the ladders, looking at the holes that had been carved into the cliffs to serve as homes.  There was QUITE a bit of temperature difference inside the caves compared to the outside where the ladders were.  Outside it was HOT!  Stifling dry heat where you could get dehydrated before you realized what was happening.

 

Now....our family seldom took a vacation without bringing our dachshund, Ginger, with us.  Ginger did her best to enjoy the time with us, but being so close to the ground, as dachshunds are so short, she was getting very hot very fast (not to mention dogs have fur coats).  So we strolled along pretty quickly and Ginger got carried a lot of the way.  

 

Finally, we reached a stream and the Park Ranger told us the water was naturally clean enough to drink from (remember this was in the early 70s).  Ginger didn't care, she saw the shallow stream, wandered out into the middle of it, had a drink, and then laid down in the cool water.  You could almost hear her singing praises to God for putting this stream right where she needed it most.

 

But think about this, have you ever been so thirsty that you couldn't even work up enough spit to swallow?  And when you finally got that first sip of cool water.......  Such is how our soul rejoices when we embrace the Living Water that Jesus promises us.