What can we learn from Jesus offering a woman living water?

KIDS TALK ABOUT GOD

What can we learn from Jesus offering a woman living water?

By Carey Kinsolving and friends

(Part One of Two)

“We should get it because it is good, and it is God,” says Chandler, 8.

Children see things through uncomplicated eyes. What else do we need to know? Living water is good, and it’s God. If we would only remember that God is good, most of our worries would be recognized instantly as silly and unfounded.

When teaching about God’s goodness, Jesus asked a simple question, “Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:9). His reasoning was simple: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11).

Part of our sinfulness is pretending we’ve got it together. Spiritual thirst is an inner soul longing for reality that only God can quench. If we doubt God’s goodness, we’ll look in all the wrong places for satisfaction.

Instead of being humble and admitting our emptiness, we’ll continue to chase things or people that promise fulfillment.

“Even though the woman was a Samaritan (remember Jews and Samaritans never mixed), Jesus said that if she had asked, he would have given her the Holy Spirit,” says Elizabeth, 12. “We can also learn that if we delight ourselves in God and his ways, we shall never be discontent or ‘thirsty.’ Jesus will give us everything we need physically, spiritually and mentally.”

Jesus went out of his way to overturn the ingrained prejudices of his day. In general, women were considered second-class citizens. Furthermore, Samaritans were the lowest of the low. The prejudice and hatred was so great that most Jews wouldn’t even walk through Samaria.

Remember the parable Jesus told of the Good Samaritan? Calling a Samaritan “good” must have sounded like an oxymoron to Jewish ears.

“God so loved the world” means that God doesn’t play favorites. All people created in his image possess infinite value. Ethnic and cultural prejudices diminish that value. Ask God to help you see all people through his eyes. God’s eyes make all the difference.

The reason Elizabeth equates living water with the Holy Spirit is because of what Jesus said later in his ministry: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38).

If you want your life to flow, trust Christ as your savior so that God can pour out his love through you to quench the souls of thirsty people. Ideally, every Christian should be a fountain whereby God’s blessings flow to others.

“We can’t live without water, and we can’t live eternally without Jesus Christ,” says Annika, 11.

That’s exactly the connection I believe Jesus wanted us to make.

“We can all have living water if we believe in Jesus,” adds Melinda, 9.

Think about this: God wants to satisfy the inner longings of your soul by pouring his life into you.

Memorize this truth: “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:13-14).

Ask this question: Have you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, who is a fountain that will satisfy your soul?

“Kids Talk About God” is distributed by Creators Syndicate. To access free, online “Kids Color Me Bible” books, “Mission Explorers” videos, a new children’s musical, and all columns in a Bible Lesson Archive, visit KidsTalkAboutGod.org. To read journey-of-faith feature stories written by Carey Kinsolving, visit FaithProfiles.org.