The fourth chapter of the Gospel of John reports that Christ Jesus once spoke with a woman who had come to a well to draw water. Jesus explained to her that he could offer her “living water” that would permanently quench any thirst. The woman was intrigued and receptive. What might such water be?
It may seem surprising that Jesus offered something so precious to a woman he had never met before, who might have had a questionable reputation. Jesus discerned that she had been married five times and was now living with a man who wasn’t her husband. Moreover, Jesus and the woman were of ethnicities that generally didn’t interact.
The availability of truly satisfying water, described as, for example, “living water” or the “water of life,” and sourced in God, is a theme found throughout the Bible. Referring to Isaiah 55:1, and to God as Love, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals. It is the open fount which cries, ‘Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters’ ” (p. 13).
