For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
- Matthew 25:35
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.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered, “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.”
- John 4:10-14
On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
- John 7:37-39
We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.
- 1 Corinthians 4:10-13
He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.
- Revelation 21:6
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
- Hebrews 13:8
Boilerplate
I’m Harold Dykstra. I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story. My time is well spent. A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel. I did not know she was an angel at the time. The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone. And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy. She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others. She changed my life. Since she was a doll that had come to life, we came up with the term ‘other living.’ She was not a human, an animal, or even a plant, but she was definitely living, and very vibrant. Oh, excuse me, angels have no gender, but the angel indwelled a doll named Bountiful Babs. After seeing the angel in that form for over a year, I cannot see her in my mind in any other form.
This Week’s Question
In the last episode, Babs sought truth. But then on the road the next day, she said she was thirsty. I am still trying to figure out this ‘other living’ thing, but sometimes, I just have to take off my engineer hat and go with the flow. When you go with the flow with Babs, it is never dull.
Babs moaned, “I told you, Harold. I’m thirsty. Jesus commends those that have fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty, and given shelter for the homeless, but you? Nope. Your travel buddy is thirsty, and you start asking questions about where the water goes or why do ‘other living’ need water in the first place.”
I defended myself, “I did not say anything of the sort.”
Babs growled, “You were thinking it.”
I responded, rather irritated, “Now, you can read minds?”
Babs retorted, “Please, Harold, it was written all over your face. Okay, if you won’t help, I’ll ask Jesus. Jesus, you told the woman at the well that you would give her living water so she would never need water again. Please, Jesus, sock it to me!”
I said, “Babs, you are taking that story too literally. Jesus was talking about the living water being the Holy Spirit that gives us spiritual water.”
Babs argued, “No, Siree, Jesus tells the religious leaders that whoever is thirsty, he has water.”
I groaned, “Babs, do you need a recharge or something? You know what a metaphor is. Right?” She nodded. “And you know not to take a verse out of context. Right?” She nodded. “So, Jesus tells the woman at the well in John 4, then he tells those at the feast of tabernacles in John 7, but what does it say a couple of verses after Jesus says that He has water?”
Babs pled, “Please do not ask me questions when I am thirsty!”
I slapped my forehead. “Okay, there is an exit up ahead. I have water in the backseat in our ice chest. But I do not want to pull over on the shoulder on this part of the interstate. There are a lot of curves, and the traffic is heavy. But to answer my question, John explains that Jesus’ offer of water was the Holy Spirit. That is after the verse you took out of context in John 7.”
Babs moaned, “You know, Harold, I don’t think the Apostle Paul was ever thirsty. People took care of him.”
I asked, “What did Paul tell the Corinthians in first Corinthians 4? Wait! Sorry that I asked. Paul said that he had to work hard with his hands for everything. He told the Corinthians that he had been hungry, thirsty, in rags, brutally treated, and homeless, but he worked for what he got. He was a tentmaker, you know.”
Babs scrunched her nose. “I might remember once I get some water.”
I groaned again.
Babs asked, “Okay, maybe Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit, but what about the water of life?”
I scrunched my nose. This conversation was not making any sense. “Babs, the water of life is only mentioned in that last two chapters of Revelation, at the end of the Bible and after God has made everything right.”
Babs groaned, “This isn’t another metaphor thing, is it?”
I shrugged, “I have no idea, but it might just literally be water that we can drink and never get thirsty, but we’ll have to have seven years of the tribulation before we get there.”
Babs said, “I can’t wait that long.”
I laughed, “Then good. Our exit is a mile up the road. A good travel buddy would have pointed that out, but for some reason, you are low on water and your excellent travel buddy skills are diminished.” We pulled over at a gas station. Rather than get water from our ice chest, I went inside the convenience store and got us two half liter bottles of ice cold water.
As she was drinking her water, I said, “You know, Babs, what you said in your prayer could be dangerous.”
“What’s that, Harold?”
“You said, ‘sock it to me.’ I was really little, but there was a television show that I saw on reruns. It was Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In. They had a lot of people who said that, but one girl in particular would get splashed with water or something else every time she said it.”
Babs scrunched her nose and asked, “When she said, ‘Sock it to me?” And I squeezed my water bottle and splashed water in Babs’ face.
“Ah!” Babs shouted. “And why did they do that on the television show?”
I turned back to face her. “Because it was funny!” And she squeezed her water bottle, splashing me in the face.
Babs giggled, “You are correct, Harold. That is funny.”
We toweled off a little and got back on the road.
About five miles down the road, on a very deserted part of the interstate highway, Babs said, “Harold, I have to go to the bathroom.”
I said nothing, I just gave her a puzzled look.
“You were thinking, not saying, where does the water go. Now you know! Jesus may be the same yesterday, today, and forever, but ‘other living’ Babs is constantly changing!”
Credits
All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife. We would talk about anything and everything. And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.
My wife only had one bathroom emergency stop to make. I learned quickly that when she is pregnant do not take backroads. Go where there are plenty of places with restrooms. But I was taught a few things by my Dad that probably should have never been taught. I was taught that grown men do not cry, but since my wife passed away eleven months ago, give or take, I do a lot of that. And the other thing that comes to mind is holding my bladder until I could see the water level in my eyeballs. My Dad was not going to stop. I tried that on my boys, and they rebelled. Not a pretty sight. But I wonder if some of my urinary problems might stem from holding it far too long. I’m going to have to ask the doctor that next time. …
And as for Judy Carne and “Sock it to me” …
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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