Just a Little Water

The task was simple… fill the jugs with water.  But as I followed my Haitian friend down the street into a group of houses I started to realize that maybe I was wrong.  We reached the water spicket and started to fill a 5 gallon bucket.  We watched and waited, and she told me that it doesn’t go very fast.  I could only imagine what it must be like for a family to not only find a good water source, but also spend the time waiting for the buckets to fill.  Once it was full we started to carry it back to the bus.  I helped her carry it, but I quickly realized she probably didn’t need my help.  She would probably move faster without me.  Haitian women are strong… far stronger than this lazy, American girl.  But she let me help.  The people around watched us walk by.  I could only hope that they didn’t just see an American girl and a Haitian girl, but rather two friends working side by side.  Once again I could only imagine what it must be like to have to carry jugs of water who knows how far.  I could barely carry one 20 feet.  I tried not to think too much about the people in Haiti and all over the world that do this every day and often under much worse circumstances.  I knew my heart couldn’t handle it.  We walked back to fill the other jugs and joked about how she is much stronger than me.  As I think back over these events I remember the woman at the well.  Like many people in Haiti, she went to complete a daily, necessary task; however, her daily and mundane was interrupted by the Sustainer of all things.  Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.  The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)

God, as they seek the physical water that gives life on this earth let them find the living water that gives life for all eternity.