There was an old well down a brick pathway at my family home. It provided all the water we needed for 9 people. The family laundered once a week. Daily needs such as cooking and dishwashing. A cool drink of water on a hot summer day from the old dipper which always hung there. And, yes, we all drank from the same dipper. It provided water for our canning needs in summer, water for the animals, and our once-a-week Saturday baths.
The well never failed.
Through very hot summers and dry seasons, its cool sweetness sustained us.
Every few years, Dad pumped all of the water out and went down into the well and cleaned it. He repaired any bricks that might have fallen. He had to work quickly, as the water continued to flow. I leaned over the side as he worked and let the cool, refreshing uplift of air cool my face and smelled its delicious freshness. The bricks were covered with moss. And to this day I believe it was responsible for the delicious taste of that water. Have you ever smelled fresh moss out in the woods? That’s how that water tasted!
Now my nephew lives in the house, and they have “town water” and don’t use the old well anymore. It’s still there, a precious memory of an unprecedented time.
What is the lesson? I say to you, “Be a well!” Be a resource that never fails. Be a refreshment in a dry and thirsty world. Tell people about Jesus, who is The Living Water. Remember the woman at the well? He offered it (Himself) and she took it! She went into the town and shared it with the whole town. There was an awakening in that place.
Our old well and the Gospel story together inspired these words to me one day: “The Gospel comes as a grateful drink of cold water to a thirsty man on a hot day in a dusty road with no shade.”
Thoughts From the Garden 