by Leon

People often find comfort in various material things. It is said by many that money can buy happiness. People often find comfort in relationships, whether they be a relationship of intimacy or just by socially being surrounded by a variety of good company. Those, of course, are the more obvious themes in which some people find comfort. Others may find comfort in addiction, alcohol, or a form of luxury.

            Our fleshy comfort can be temporally satisfied in a multitude of ways. We are fragile creatures, fragile enough that we easily experience pain, but just as much as we can readily experience pain and grief, we can experience comfort. This lockdown that has gripped the world has caused me to think a lot about comfort. I have heard complaints from different friends about hating not being able to go out for fun, and I have heard some unpleasant remarks about not being able to finish graduation. Vacations have been forced canceled; restaurants have been closed resulting in many of our favorite meals being unobtainable. I have even seen some TV series postponed or delayed. One complaint stuck in my head and that complaint was from a friend who said he hated not being able to attend church.

            I cannot blame anyone for missing these things or being frustrated. But it made me think about something that has been heavy on my heart for a while. Many, many things can comfort us in this world. Yet these comforts that are found in this world, are keyword – temporary. What happens when the temporary aspect of one of our various worldly comforts reaches its end?    

Where do you turn?

^“A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” – John 4:7-14

            This encounter between a woman and Jesus came to mind. Here she was going about her daily routine trying to draw water from a deep well to quench her thirst. She was probably hot and exhausted. After all, this is the middle east we are talking about. She was looking for some water to relieve her grief with comfort. Jesus confronted her with something that was naturally true, no matter how much we drink we will physically become thirsty again. Becoming thirsty when you need water is a natural reaction of the body. Yet what Jesus said was something much more symbolic. No matter how much we thirst for comfort in this world through natural means, we will always want more and more. We will never be satisfied permanently.  

^“The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” – John 7:15-18

            Jesus shows us the water of comfort this woman was seeking, and that was through affectionate relationships. We are all different – we all have hurt and try to find comfort in our own ways. We try to self-medicate our grief, our pain, and our loneliness through what the world has to offer. But I am here to tell you that what the world has to offer will never be satisfying enough. We will always get thirty again and we will never truly be full. God created us with an internal need that only a connection with Him can fill. If you genuinely want to be filled, you will only find this fullness in Him.

Where will we turn? I know where I will.

^“ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” – John 7:13-14