"Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters," says the Prophet. And Jesus, speaking to the woman at the well, 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."
The thing about a spring or a river is that it is generally considered to be a reliable source of fresh, clean water, because it is constantly running; unlike a lake or a pond, which is standing water.
Is Jesus telling us that we need to move? Is the water that he promises us, water that will become a spring "welling up to eternal life" moving us forward, onward, out into the world?
The Prophet's words in Isaiah, words that come from the Lord, are also all about motion.
"Come to the waters...," "come to me...," "Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you..."
Just as with water, if we stop moving, acting, reaching out beyond ourselves, we will become stagnant. God's Spirit calls us out of ourselves, even as it challenges us to look within ourselves.
In Advent, we celebrate the coming of Jesus. He comes, he moves, he is going somewhere, going to find those who need to be healed. Let us go with him.
Merciful God, you sent the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation. Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus our Redeemer.
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