My son, Clive, has a birthday exactly two months before Christmas, so it’s always a nonstop parade of gifts and requests for 60 long days. I see the glow in his eyes as he unwraps a new gift or dreams up the next item for his Amazon wish list. Each gift brings him joy but it’s always short-lived; soon he’s ready for the next thing.
Clive just turned 8, and as we’re working on expressing genuine gratitude for the love shown by the givers, I’m reminded of how easily we all experience that same thirst for “more.” Like Clive we crave satisfaction but often look for it in things that won’t last.
In John 4, Jesus defies the cultural norms of His day when He asks a Samaritan woman for water. He and the woman have a playful back-and-forth conversation with each other but then Jesus ends their banter with: “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me [for it], and I would give you living water” (NLT emphasis added).
This moment is pivotal. Jesus, a Jewish man, is taking time to have a meaningful conversation with a Samaritan woman deemed by culture to be utterly unworthy (not to mention, she comes with a laundry list of sins). Then Jesus offers her “living water,” a gift that brings eternal satisfaction. Think of the boldness of that statement! Fully knowing her sins and flaws, Jesus offers her love and belonging in a way she’s never experienced. In that moment, the gift of salvation is extended not only to her but to everyone who has ever been on the outside—including us!
Christmas is ultimately about that same gift: Jesus Himself, given to us, satisfying our deepest thirsts. He is the fulfillment we’re seeking when we go from one gift to the next hoping each one will finally be “enough.” Unlike physical thirst that’s quickly quenched but always returns, in Jesus we find living water that quenches our spiritual thirst and fills us with peace and joy that cannot be found in material things. Just as Jesus humbly offered living water to an outsider at a well, He humbly entered our world as a baby born in a stable—offering His love to the overlooked, the outsiders, and the brokenhearted.
I would love to feel eternally satisfied, wouldn’t you? What if this Christmas season, before building our gift guides, we first seek to share the gift of God we’ve freely received? Let’s commit together to drinking from the fresh bubbling spring within us and offering our thirsty friends, co-workers, and neighbors a truly satisfying sip. This Advent season, may I challenge you to explore whatever areas you are continuously hungry and thirsty and ask God to fill them with His living water—a well that springs up to refresh and fulfill you? May we, like Clive, learn that the true gift is not the thrill of receiving but the love of the Giver.
