SCRIPTURE:
If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. (John 4:10)
REFLECTION:
Growing up in church, I often heard the story of Jacob’s Ladder. And I often heard the story of John 4, the woman at the well. But I didn’t know that the well was called Jacob’s Well (I missed that day in Sunday School?). Jacob’s Ladder depicts salvation as “up and down,” as if we climb to heaven. But this encounter at Jacob’s Well depicts salvation as drinking deeply, of going down into the waters. The contrast is compelling. Come to the Well. Drink.
PRAYER:
“O Lord my God, may Thy holy gift and Thy Holy Water be unto forgiveness of my sins, unto enlightenment of my mind, unto strengthening of my spiritual and bodily powers, unto health of my soul and body, unto vanquishing of my passions and weaknesses, by Thy boundless merciful kindness. Amen.” (From the Russian Orthodox tradition)
- from “Grounded” by Diana Butler Bass