Good Friday was hot and sunny and we had the day off from school. After spending some time in Daniel's neighborhood in the morning (more about that in another post), it was refreshing in more ways than one to have a simple task like washing the truck turn into a raging water war among our four kids and my three "Haitian sons" - Ruysdael, Johnny, and Mikenn.
It started with a simple chore request from Melissa: "Somebody" needs to wash the truck. Our kids decided they should put on swimsuits since the work might get a bit wet.
I drove the truck around to the back of the house, broke out some rags and borrowed a hose from the Bundy's next door. For the first few minutes of the job, some actual work got accomplished.
But then the self-induced hosing started...
And Caleb broke out a water gun ...
All downhill from there!
For well over an hour.
Finally, Melissa called a truce for some freezer pops. (Looks like Caleb is experiencing a bit of brain freeze here!)
But then out came the water balloons!
Originally I had no plan to blog about the afternoon, but when I took a closer look at the pictures and saw the absolute JOY on so many faces, I just had to share them.
And, though I was too slow to put two and two together in the moment, it did strike me later that this was undoubtedly the first water war that Mikenn, Ruysdael and Johnny had ever experienced. No wonder they took such delight in dousing each other and their American siblings in cold, clear water! Like so many of the other folks on this mountainside, they don't have the luxury of indoor taps with hot and cold running water on command. And they don't have a hose in the back yard. Water is a necessity that requires extra effort and/or extra money to obtain. From elsewhere. For them, a nearby spring supplies their washing needs, but for cooking and drinking they need to buy cleaner water in jugs from sellers on the main road down the hill.
Water is scarce, good water even scarcer. It's certainly not something you are used to playing with.
So that got me to thinking that my three friends, and many others around this globe, might have a deeper appreciation of the story found in John 4 than you and I currently have. That's the one where Jesus, in the heat of the day, confronts a Samaritan woman at a well and offers her "living water".
Can you imagine how the offer would catch your attention if a good chunk of your time and energy - EVERY day - was spent in fetching water?
As much as she dreamed of a never-ending source of physical water close to her home, Jesus was wanting to share a deeper spiritual reality which leads to even greater JOY that would be INSIDE her ... or me ... or you: "a well of water springing up to eternal life"!
As we close out another Easter season, my prayer for you and for me is that we may live in that joy of living water, made available to us by Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
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