Asking for Water

42 “When I came to the spring today, I said, ‘O LORD, God of my master Abraham, if you will, please grant success to the journey on which I have come. 43 See, I am standing beside this spring; if a maiden comes out to draw water and I say to her, “Please let me drink a little water from your jar,” 44 and if she says to me, “Drink, and I’ll draw water for your camels too,” let her be the one the LORD has chosen for my master’s son.’
45 “Before I finished praying in my heart, Rebekah came out, with her jar on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew water, and I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’
46 “She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too.’ So I drank, and she watered the camels also.
47 “I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’
“She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.’
“Then I put the ring in her nose and the bracelets on her arms, 48 and I bowed down and worshiped the LORD. I praised the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right road to get the granddaughter of my master’s brother for his son. 49 Now if you will show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so I may know which way to turn.” (Genesis 24:42-49)

We need water. Without it, there is no life. In the Bible, some people fight for water as the servants of Abimelech did in Genesis chapter 26. Some people demand water as the Israelites did when they quarreled with Moses in Exodus chapter 17. Some people are shown water as the angel showed Hagar the well before sending her back to Sarah and again after God had promised to make Ishmael a great nation.

Water is vital, but it was not the reason that Abraham’s servant was at the spring. He wasn’t there to find water. He was there to find a person, a wife for Isaac. And he found her with a simple request: “Please give me a drink.”

Jesus made the same request when he met the Samaritan woman by the well in John chapter 4: “Will you give me a drink?” But it wasn’t the water he was interested in. It was a person that he really cared about, a woman who had had five husbands and was an outcast from her village.

As we journey with God, we realize that he may take us from place to place, but the places are not important. He may give us many things, things that sustain us, but the things are not important. Most important is the person. Which person? Each one of us is important because God has called us. Each person we meet is important because God can reach out to them through us. But the most important person is Jesus, who speaks to us through a thousand different voices saying “Will you give me a drink?” He is the person that our journey is all about.

Prayer:
• Thank God for the places He has led you to and for the things He has given you. But most of all, gives thanks to Him for the people He has put in your life.