Jumping Water

The other day I listened to a sermon on tape while walking. (It really helps to keep my mind off the pain in my ankle!!!) The speaker taught on John 4, which is where Jesus ventures in Samaria and encounters the woman at the well. Oh, there’s TONS of good stuff to be gleaned from that encounter, but in this message, the speaker focused on verse 13, where Jesus said to the woman, ““Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The original Greek word Jesus used, which was interpreted welling up, is so much more than the interpretation implies. The word is the same one used back in Acts, when Peter and John prayed for a lame man who, “…went jumping and leaping and praising God.” Jesus said the water He gives leaps up in us to eternal life. Leaps! Can’t you picture that?

One of my favorite Disney theme parks is Epcot Center. In front of the Figment ride is a display of jumping water. Spurts of water leap from jets in the ground, and give the effect of jumping and leaping from place to place. The first time I saw that jumping water, I was entranced. It was almost as though the water was alive, jumping from one place in the fountain to another. Jumping water! And there were lots of children, hot and sweaty from a long day at the theme park, running after the water, trying to stand where it would land so they could be refreshed by a cold splash.

The water that Jesus gives leaps up from deep recesses of our soul, jumping from us to spray those around us. Oh, how I want to be a child, running in the fountain, chasing the jumping water, hot and tired and thirsty, eager to be refreshed by His gift of jumping water.