I am always in awe of God’s perfect timing of events in our lives and it makes me want to shout it from the rooftops! Experiencing it once again one day this week, I have to share so I guess this platform is my rooftop! 🙂
This day was a “different” day for me as it didn’t follow my typical Friday. I usually get up and workout first, then proceed with the day and at noon volunteer at the Pre-K 4 yr old class for a few hours.
It was the last day of school for the pre-schoolers this day so I rolled out of bed and went to assist at the school in the morning because they only had half a day.
I had good intentions of when I got home after noon that I was going to work out first then do my other chores. Admittedly, I have been finding it a little harder to have that pep to work out right away; sometimes I end up getting sidetracked trying to muster up the energy to do it.
We finally had a beautiful day weather wise, sunny and high 70’s so after my exercise video I opted to go for a walk outside rather than doing the treadmill. For only the third time lately, I opted to walk up the big hills in the nearby neighborhood feeling a little more like a conqueror!
As I was coming back from the hilly area and turned down the street, I noticed two young girls, maybe around age 6 and 9 trying to get the man’s attention who was mowing his lawn across the road. It was cute to see them so excited jumping up and down hearing them saying politely, “Sir, would you like a drink” though he was unaware because of the noise of the mower.
I could see the girls had something like a little “drink” stand. My first thought was “oh, no, should I go another route to avoid them?” You see, I figured they wanted some money and I did not have any money on me so I was feeling bad.
Photo courtesy of Shelby L. Bell under Creative Commons License (CC BY 2.0)
I did opt to just ride it out and walk by them. As I was approaching, they were still jumping up and down with excitement, but when I was still a ways off I looked sad and when they said “Would you like some water?” I said “but I don’t have any money.”
The older girl said “That’s okay. It is free.”
I figured to maybe make their day I would say “yes.”
They had some big red, plastic cups all ready and a lovely big, blue glass pitcher filled with water. The two girls worked together to give me a little water to drink, asked me if it was enough, and then kindly inquired if I wanted them to take the cup when I was finished. They had a spot to put the used cups too. Trying to make conversation with them, I asked if they had other customers. They said I was the first person they served.
As I was drinking, I noticed the younger girl was holding a sign; I don’t recall now exactly what it said but I did note that at the end it said $1.00. 🙂
As I proceeded homeward, I felt like I wanted to “pay” for the water to hopefully bless the girls for their generosity; to maybe be Jesus to them without using words.
I did walk home, got 10 dimes so they could easily share the money equally and proceeded back to their stand. As I approached there was another lady walking her dog who also took water even though she didn’t have any money either. The mom was up at the other end of the driveway doing something this time; I could hear this lady talking with her from the bottom of the driveway and the mom said it was fine that she didn’t have any money. She took the water and continued on her walk.
The girls remembered me and I handed them the money simply saying I wanted to pay them.
After walking away from my first encounter with the girls, my thoughts turned to the Bible story from John 4:7-15….The Woman at the well that Jesus encountered.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
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.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.
I thought of the parallels of the two girls I encountered and this Bible story.
You never know when you will be blessed;
a simple drink of water on my walk reminded me of Jesus~~
the living water who is always at work and present in our lives!
On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory. –John 7:37-39 (NLT)
“Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink— even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk— it’s all free!” –Isaiah 55:1 (NLT)
Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” –John 6:36 (NLT)
