Week 31 - July 28 - August 3, 2024: The Fountain of Youth?

This week’s daily readings:

July 28 - August 3, 2024

This week’s devotional:

The Fountain of Youth?

By Nicholas Ambrose

Scripture:

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.

— John 4:14 (NIV) 

Reflection:

People have been fascinated and allured to believe in the mythical “Fountain of Youth” for centuries. Many have searched and traveled far and wide to find its magical waters that preserve the youthful appearance of anyone who drinks from it. In the 1500s, a Spanish explorer named Juan Ponce de Leon was told by Native Americans that the elusive fountain could be found in what is now St. Augustine, Florida. He searched long and hard for the treasured fountain, but unsurprisingly, never found it. I say unsurprisingly because there is no fountain of youth, at least not physically that is. Jesus promised the woman at the well living water, water that would quench her thirst for all time. Jesus promised to the woman, and us, that this water we drink from will be a spring that wells up to eternal life. While this living water and living spring by no means preserves our physical youthfulness, it does preserve something far more important, our souls. While people have tried and tried to find the elusive fountain of youth that will somehow save them, Jesus promises the weary hearted like the woman at the well, a fountain of life, that most definitely will save them. This water that Jesus promised to the woman at the well and to us, is, of course, himself.

Questions:

Do you often hope for a ‘fountain of youth’ that will solve all your physical ailments?

Have you received the living water that Jesus offered to the woman at the well, which is himself?

Prayer:

Dear God, often it can be easy to hope that all our physical troubles and the effects of aging would go away. Help us to not look for a fountain of youth that this world tries to offer us, but rather help us to turn to your son Jesus, who offers living water that will truly make us right. Amen.