Water is very precious and is vital to sustaining life. Our little planet seems to be unique in the universe because of the abundance of water. However, a recent United Nations’ report says the world has entered an era of “global water bankruptcy” – we are consuming more water than the natural world supplies. Three-quarters of the world population, about 4 billion people, face severe water scarcity at least one month annually, and 2 billion people lack safely managed drinking water. The causes are climate change, mismanagement, and over-extraction. Shortage of water affects food production, especially for subsistence farmers. Some cities in the Mediterranean, Asia, and Africa, are experiencing land subsidence of up to 25 cm annually due to groundwater depletion.

Some friends of ours run a Christian charity called TASTE which, in partnership with an organisation in Nigeria, is committed to providing clean drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene education to schools and rural communities. It is estimated that 133 million Nigerians lack access to safe water, leading to high mortality rates from diarrhoea caused by waterborne diseases. TASTE drills boreholes and install pumps to provide safe water.

Jesus once met a woman by a well in Samaria. She had come, in the midday heat, to draw water from the well which was deep. Fetching and carrying water was hard work then, as it is today for many women in the world. The woman had experienced many problems in her life, including several broken marriages, which had really hurt her. Jesus spoke to her in a kindly way, even though her first response to him was negative. He revealed a real love for her and addressed her deepest needs.

Jesus knew the water from the well could only satisfy the physical needs of the woman and her family for short time but, using the image of water, he spoke of the deep and lasting satisfaction which comes from knowing him. He told her that she had only to ask him and he would give her “living water”. He said, “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

All of us want to find meaning in our lives and deep and lasting satisfaction. We want to know why we were created and the meaning of life. The answer is found in knowing Jesus. Many people, from all nations, have responded to his love, demonstrated in his death on the cross for our sins. As they have put their trust in him, they have been transformed and have experienced a deep peace and joy which satisfies their deepest longings, as the woman did that day,