Bucket Living

I find myself pretty emotional these days. Well, actually, I’m emotional most other times as well, but this is a different type of emotion. Currently, we are in the middle of the desert, figuratively speaking. Seven weeks without water in our house has left us relying on “bucket” living, meaning a constant stream of filling up buckets from a back faucet and carrying them inside our house. We “bucket” flush, we take “bucket” baths and the dishes get a “bucket” rinse. I’d like to think we are pros at “bucket” living now. Three days ago, we found ourselves without even the small trickle of water coming in our back faucet. “What are we going to do for water?” was my first thought. “Where are we going to get it from?”

I’m reminded of a woman in the Bible. A Samaritan woman going to draw water at a well, Jacob’s well. I can picture the scene well in mind after seeing women draw water from wells here.  In John, chapter 4, we read about this Samaritan woman going to fill her “bucket” with water and meeting Jesus. He asks for a drink from her, breaking a Jewish law. Jews were not supposed to talk with Samaritans. And, being a man, he was not supposed to talk to a woman without her husband present. But, that day, that life-changing day for this woman, Jesus wasn’t concerned with the law. He was concerned with offering grace and a chance to know Him. This Samaritan woman, whose name we never know, got to fill her “bucket” with much more than water to quench her thirst. She was offered living water. “Everyone who drinks this water (from the well) will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

I want that water. I want to fill my “bucket” with living water from the Lord. Where am I placing my trust? In what am I placing my faith?

Yesterday, as I used the last drop of water we had in the house, I closed my eyes and prayed to the Lord, “Please provide water for us.” Not a second later, I heard a loud knocking at our front gate. I put on my shoes and went to see who was there. A neighbor down the road was there and said, “If you need to fill up with water, you can come to our house and get what you need.” As I held back tears, I thanked him and went to get our buckets. I praised God and smiled for his perfect timing. I asked and He immediately provided. 

This is where my hope is found. In Him, I put my hope all day long. He is a God who provides.

So, do I recommend “bucket” living? No, not necessarily. But, if it means getting to be reminded of the provisions of my Savior, who offers living water, yes!