Good morning…
Jesus says, “…The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life,” says John 4:14b in the Message translation. My brain wonders, “What is an artesian spring?”
Googling, I learn that “artesian” is the upward movement of water under hydrostatic pressure from beneath the earth’s surface. Spring water under “artesian” pressure gushes through a crack, a fissure, an opening in the surface. Such springs flow because the pressure in the water-bearing soil, which is covered by a confining clay layer, is greater than atmospheric pressure at the surface of the land.
What does this mean to our life of faith? On the surface level of human life, we confined our experiences beneath a hardened layer of labels. Bad or good. Rich or poor. Friend or foe. Trying to order our world in a way we feel safe, trapping ourselves beneath a thick zone of comfort, we maintain status quo for as long as we can. Until a crack occurs in our life’s smooth surface.
The crack may come from an unexpected phone call. The fissure may occur when our well laid expectations are not met. An opening may happen when a loved one lets us down. From beneath layer after layer of self-protection, the Spirit of God flows up through our broken places, like an artesian spring bursting forth from within. Eventually, we are unable to deny the truth of 1 John 4:4 (NIV): …the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. God’s powerful presence gushes past old constraints to become in us a fountain of endless life.
God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us, Ephesians 3:20-21 (MSG),
Sue
