Come To The Well (Ken Ellis)

Here's another great offering by my good friend, Ken Ellis! I'm safely back from Vietnam!

When I was eight years old, my parents sold our little farm in North Central Texas and moved to another community about 15 miles away to build our first new house.  The community was outside of the city limits of the nearest town, so city water was not available.  My dad hired two or three well diggers to hand dig the well, but how do you dig a well if you don't know whether or not there is an underground stream where you are digging?  I watched in amazement as one of the well diggers took a forked peach limb, often called a divining rod, placed a fork of the limb in each hand and began walking near the area where the house was to be built.  At one point the long limb moved downward towards the ground, and the man indicated that this was where the well should be dug.  Somehow, beyond my comprehension, the limb sensed the location of an underground stream and pointed downwards to where the stream flowed.  After several days of digging and hauling dirt and rock out of the well in a large bucket, the ground became moist, and soon the shovels were wet from a fresh stream of water.  A pump was hooked up nearby with large intake hoses running down into the stream, and we were able to pump water into our house.  Without fresh water, it would have been futile to have built a house there. It took many hours of hard labor under a scorching sun to find the precious gift of life that refreshed our souls on hot summer days in Texas.

This reminds me of the story in John 4 when Jesus asks the Samaritan woman at the well for a drink of water.  Jesus tells the woman that whoever drinks the water from the well will always be thirsty, but that He can give her a water that will allow her to never thirst again which will well up inside of her leading to eternal life.

There are millions of people in the world today who are looking for this eternal water of life so that regardless of their physical condition on earth, they will never again feel the thirst of emptiness that they alone cannot quench.  May God help us to lead souls to that well of eternal life where they will thirst no more.

The group Casting Crowns has written a beautiful and moving song titled Come to the Well that you can enjoy on YouTube. A portion of the lyrics read:

I have what you need,
But you keep on searchin,
I've done all the work,
But you keep on workin,
When you're runnin on empty,
And you can't find the remedy,
Just come to the well.

And all who thirst will thirst no more,
And all who search will find what their souls long for,
The world will try, but it can never fill,
So leave it all behind, and come to the well.

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

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E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com