Sometimes, in the hot summer months, I visit patients who cannot drink fluids (NPO). I cannot give them water, but we often pray together as we ponder that water, when received, satisfies like no other.
A few years ago, after one of these visits, I tried to think of a time when I was as thirsty as my patients. This came to mind.
The Jug
Simmering summer days
Bring back memories of cotton fields
In West Texas on Dad’s farm.
Cracked earth, agape and begging
For a drink while
My own thirst pushed me faster
To the end of the row
Where a burlap jug waited
In the shade of a careless weed
Tall and broad enough
To cast its own shade,
For my precious cache of water.
John 4:10 “Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
Psalm 42: 1-3, 11b “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?…Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”
David Martin
Lifeline Chaplaincy 