Liquid Gold ... On Layton!

A day on Layton or Maple or Main or First Streets probably begins in much the same way:

Flush the toilet, wash hands, fill the coffee maker, feed the cat, take your pills, shower.

The day progresses:

Throw in a load of laundry, put a roast in the crock pot, turn up the heat, drive to work or the market.

None of these things, not one, could be done without the presumption of the presence of water, readily available and in abundance.

Only a handful of times in my sixty years on Layton have we lived without water. It always happens in August when rainfall is sparse, and the weather is arid. The old, hand-drilled 120' well dries up, and only a foggy, brown liquid emerges from the faucet, dredged up from the well's bottom. We hate it! We complain! We buy water. We go to school unshowered, unshaven, and uncoifed. Poor us.

Ah, the hardships of living on Layton.

Within a week or two, the well recovers itself, and the September rains fall. Small trial. Small tribulation. Water is one of those assumed luxuries that we expect and take for granted in America. I have never lost nights of sleep wondering how I would keep the children hydrated and healthy with clean, plentiful water. 

But I have wondered about those mothers in Syrian refugee camps - no toilets or clean water supplies in their tents, jammed one next to the other. I have wondered about those mothers in the Sudan - never mind that there is no faucet in their huts; there is no well in the village! A trek to carry water back to her home might take a mother most of her day. And then there is the fear that the water, shared perhaps by bathers, goats, and cows, might be contaminated. Syrian mothers, Sudanese mothers, these are people who put daily worth on the value of water ... while I sit blithely on my own personal well. 

How blessed and fortunate we are for that undercherished, underappreciated, overlooked liquid gold of life ... water.

March 16th begins World Water Week, a proclamation of the United Nations. An organization called Samaritan's Purse is drawing attention this week to the plight of millions and millions, around the world who lack clean water.

Samaritan's Purse lists these statistics:
*783 million people don't have access to water.
*That's 1 in 9 people without clean drinking water.
*Water related diseases affect children's education, as well as their health.

Samaritan's Purse is a highly reputable organization, directing contributions for water directly to well projects throughout the world. The organization is run by Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham. To aid Samaritan's Purse in supplying wells for the waterless around the world, check out their website, http://www.samaritanspurse.org/water/pour-into-a-thirsty-world/  A small gesture, like helping to supply water, can mean liquid gold to a needy family. It is one small thing we can do to make a diffeence in the world from our easy chairs, perched atop wells.           .


And contemplating water reminds me of the "Living Water," Jesus. There are even more millions who walk the earth without the "living water," the spiritual satisfier, the life giver. We can splash about in the abundance of water, drenching our bodies and quenching our thirst, but we can be barren spiritually ... dry, shriveled up, dying. Jesus beckons us to come to the well that will not run dry. Try Him. "Whoever believes in me ... rivers of living water will flow from within them" (John 7:38).

Awash in liquid gold, I sit on Layton ...

Praying water, physical and spiritual, for the world.

Herein is our communal responsibility.