Drinking at the Springs of Living Water

The weather for Thursday was supposed to be just about perfect, sunny and breezy and a bit cooler than the earlier part of the week. So my husband and I packed our stuff in the car, grabbed a pair of hoagies at the convenient new hoagie shop we found, tossed them in the cooler, and headed for the hills of Sproul State Forest.

We parked in the same parking lot we use when we're playing on the big sledding hill. And what fun we had there back in February! I wrote my initials in the snow that day to mark the furthest sled ride I took, but all of that is gone now: the snow melted, my writings dispersed to the four winds.

We walked to the top of the hill, then down and down and down into the hollows. Down past a cabin that is always neatly kept, and beside it burbles one of the very best fresh water springs I know of. It never runs dry, not even in the driest and most parched time of the year.

On the way down the hill, I snapped a few photos but we weren't thirsty yet and didn't need to drink. But hours later, after we'd spent our day in the woods walking all around, when we came by the beautiful spring again, I got out my empty bottles and my cup. And we both drank heavily. I filled my cup again and again.

The water is cold and clear and clean and sweet and good.

Would you like to borrow my cup?

I'm a Methodist by birth and by training, and the words of all the great old hymns are always dancing around, deep in my heart and on my lips. So let's give me a Methodist moment, shall we? And let the soundtrack song be this great old tune: the Melody Four with Dick Anthony sing Springs of Living Water. Here are some lyrics and you're welcome to sing along!

Drinking at the springs of living water,
Happy now am I, my soul they satisfy;
Drinking at the springs of living water,
O wonderful and bountiful supply.
How sweet the living water from the hills of God,
It makes me glad and happy all the way;
Now glory, grace and blessing mark the path I've trod,
I'm shouting Hallelujah every day.