Imagine time travel exists and you picked up your great great granny (in the Delorean of course) and you bring her to your house. She’d be stunned by the technology but I think she’d stare with wide eyed wonder at your water taps. She’d be amazed at the convenience of clean indoor running water. Her visit would make you look again at the world we live in. What we take for granted is a marvel for millions across the world.
In Hidden Dromara I want to encourage us to slow down long enough to see different features in and around Dromara (or wherever you live) and to think more deeply on what they say about us and to us. Often these features are hidden or they are so familiar to us we no longer see them. Yet they are part of our human story. They speak about how we influence the natural world for our benefit and because of our beliefs (and everyone believes something).
All that may sound a bit heavy but it’s not really. It’s simply about reflecting on the world around us. It’s walking without headphones, with our eyes and ears open-thinking.
So let’s go for a walk.
We’re heading back up the Moybrick Road. [We were up there when we saw the gates which I wrote about here.] Again we’re crossing the bridge and heading up the hill. This time we’re not looking into the briers but through the grass. Halfway up the hill on the left hand side is a well. You could easily miss it and drive past it, which I did many times. But when you slow down and walk, it’s easily seen.
The dark hole in the bank gives away it location. Pull back the grass and thorns and you will see that someone has constructed a beautiful stone well. The stone well that encloses the spring tells a story. Now before you get the wrong idea, when you pull back the grass you won’t see a well like the one Jack and Jill climbed a hill to. I won’t want you thinking that on the Moybrick road there is a portal to a magically world of wishing wells.
No, the story this well tells is not a fairy-tale but a more truly magical tale. One we have become dull to. One that speaks of the beauty and wonder of the ordinary. What is convenient is often taken for granted. The convenience of taps in our homes lead us to overlook how astonishing water is. The well on the Moybrick road was built by those who hadn’t forgotten the wonder of water. It’s a house for the spring. A carefully constructed stone roof provides an strong arch to hold back the soil above. The water must not be contaminated. It vital it’s kept pure. Away from the heat of the sun it remains cool. A few shallow steps down to it allow for easy access for anyone who comes to draw the water out. A decision was made by someone to build it facing the public road instead of facing the house just over the hedge. Water is for all. To privatise the well is declaring death to your neighbours. All should have access to its water. None should be prevented from using it.
Ironically the very thing that was built to protect it now makes it a target for bottles and cans thrown from cars. What was once pure is now contaminated. You would not drink from this well. Thankfully you don’t need to. Wells are part of a different era. We have moved on to taps but for all our advancements we have not nor cannot progress beyond water. There is no healthy substitute for that clear, pure liquid.
And that's why this spring was treasured. In its prime, without the undergrowth and the rubbish, the well would look like a grotto or a shrine. Many would have made the daily pilgrimage to stoop under its arch and carry from it life giving water. Clean water is the difference between life and death. No water, No life. The well is where we recognise how fragile we are. We are three days away from death without water. Obviously we live in Dromara (or wherever we live) 2022 so lack of water doesn’t feature high on the things we need to worry about, but it’s still worth considering how essential it is for us and all living things.
Our bodies crave it. You can literally die of thirst. These water cravings scream at our body- “Drink!”, “Drink or die”. Our thirst for water mirrors our thirst for God. What’s happening in our cells gives us a way of understand what’s happening in our souls. Now I know I’ve taken quite a jump there from water to God and some of you might be reeling a bit. You might be thinking we were just sipping cool water and all of a sudden you’ve drop us in the ocean. But stay with me. My intention is not to drown you but to refresh you.
The bible paints a beautiful image as it makes the connection between our thirst for water and God.
“As the deer pants for streams of water so my soul longs after you”?
You could see that scene as a large framed picture on a wall. The stream painted in such a way that would make you want to dive into it and drink it up.
Oh to be that deer you would say to yourself.
You see, I believe God created water not just to refresh us but to teach us. We have a thirst within us that water cannot reach. We have longings that nothing on earth can fulfill. We are often dissatisfied and feel parched. But parched for what?
Jesus once stood beside a well in the hot midday sun of what is now Palestine and offered a woman life-giving water. She had endured the pain and heartache of seven broken marriages and was moving on to her eighth. You don’t need to be a psychologist to work out where she was looking to quench the longings of her heart. And anyone can see it wasn’t working for her. Others had shunned her but Jesus draws near. He has what she truly needs. He offers her living water. Not from a well but from himself. He told her, “Everyone who drinks this water [from the well] will thirst 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.” [Her whole fascinating encounter with Jesus is found here]
Her story is our story.
We all try to quench the thirst of our souls with many different things. We all make our daily pilgrimage to our wells and stoop to draw out what we believe will be life giving water. But like the one up the Moybrick Road our wells are contaminated. We may not have realised it yet but this water that we are drinking will destroy us. Yet Jesus faces the public road and offers life-giving water to all. He says, “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.” (John 7:37)
Are you thirsty? Well...Come and drink.
Ps.
Keep an eye out for Cafe Hope where we will be thinking some more about life- where's it's found? & what's it's for?
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