It’s summertime. The sun is high in a cloudless sky. You’ve been outside for over an hour, and you’re reading to come in. What have you been doing? Were you working in the garden teaching those weeds who’s boss? Maybe you just rode your bike home from a friend’s house where you were playing soccer in the yard. Perhaps the driveway is covered with your new chalk art. Whatever you’ve been doing, you need a break. Your cheeks are flushed from the heat. Sweat is dripping down your face, and your shirt is plastered against your back.
You walk into the house. Where do you go? To the shower? To the fridge? A cold snack sounds kind of good. But before you do either of those, you need to take care of something else first. More than anything else, what your body is craving is water! You are dehydrated from the heat and the work, and your cells are crying out. You’re thirsty! You feel like you actually might die if you don’t get some water soon. Can you feel the relief as you gulp down a full glass? Can you hear yourself say, “Ahhhhhh!” when you finally take a breath?
We all know what that’s like. We know what it is to be “thirsty.” Your body doesn’t just like water or even want water. When you’re thirsty, it’s because your body needs water. It is necessary for your cells to keep working, and as you use it you need to replenish it. We make it a habit to keep glasses of water available to our kids all the time. If they want something else, they need to ask. But they can always drink water, whenever they want. Some days the glasses just sit on the kitchen table, practically untouched. Other days, usually on days when we’re more active, I refill them multiple times. But that’s ok—I want my kids to drink the water they need.
The Bible talks about a kind of water—living water. You may recognize that as a nickname for Jesus. Even though he lived before Jesus, King David wrote a wonderful psalm about a longing he had for Him. He described it like being thirsty, thirsty for God. Read it together in Psalm 63.
Have you ever felt that way about Jesus? Have you ever come looking for Him the way you go looking for a drink on a hot day? Ever been in a place where you felt like you might die if you didn’t get some Holy Spirit in you soon? It’s not that crazy an idea. After all, your soul needs God in much the same way your body needs water. Unfortunately, I think too many of us have never really felt that need, though. Our Bibles sit there relatively untouched, just like my kids’ glasses on some days. We aren’t really craving God, as a person, as a family. How can we build that thirst?
Work for it. Maybe that sounds silly, but just like we increase our desire for water when we work, we increase our desire for God in the same way. Well, not exactly the same way. You won’t build a thirst for him by playing outside in the sun. But you will begin to long for him the more you interact with the Son. The more you live like Jesus in your choices, the more you love like Jesus in your relationships with people, the more “Jesus” you use in your heart, and the more of Him you need to refill you. If you want to create a thirst for Jesus in your heart and in your family’s heart, make a plan to use more Jesus each day.
What can your family do? Are there ways you can serve in the community? Are there people on your street or in your school who could use your help and love through friendship? Where could you build in “Family Happy Hour,” a time where you gather together and “drink in” Jesus from scripture and your stories of how Jesus has been working in your individual lives?
Tauna at Proverbial Homemaker has a great resource called “Read, Pray, Love.” It’s a year-long set of family devotions. Each week features a verse for you to study and learn. Then there are questions about how that verse can influence your prayers, how it impacts your choices that week, and how you can love others around you. If you’re looking for a starting point to build a thirsty family, I’d recommend you check it out here: http://www.proverbialhomemaker.com/52-weeks-of-praying-for-your-family.html.
Find Psalm 63 again. End your time together by praying that psalm back to God. Ask for his help in turning you into a thirsty family, thirsty for Living Water!
