Drinking From A Shadow
Several years ago, a video went viral. Someone captured their dog trying to drink the shadow of running water on a brick wall. You can see the freeze frame from that video here.
I chuckled along with millions of other viewers while watching what this dog kept trying to do. The real water was flowing right in front of him, but he was insistent on trying to quench his thirst from the shadow of the real thing. The more he licked the brick wall, the thirstier he became—because the shadow of water on dusty brick will never quench thirst. Poor guy!
And then I realized that while millions of people were laughing at this dog online, many of them were doing the same thing.
We are all thirsty. And we see things that look like they may satisfy our craving. But the more we drink from these shadows, the thirstier we become.
So millions get stuck in a horrible cycle of attempts to quench their thirst with things that lead to addictions, downward spirals into unhealthy relationships, unending cravings for buying more stuff, and a host of other meager attempts to drink from just a shadow of the living water that flows from Jesus.
Mathematician, physicist, inventor, and theologian Blaise Pascal, wrote about this 350 years ago:
“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God Himself.”
That was the essence of Jesus’ point to the woman at the well in John 4. He said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again—ever! In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up within him for eternal life” (John 4:13-14 HCSB).
There are a lot of things that bring instant gratification in this world, but they are only shadows. Real and lasting satisfaction comes only through Jesus, and His fulfillment eventually takes us into heaven for eternity!
The video of the dog—hilarious. But where are you licking at shadows? What are you trying to drink from that will not really quench your thirst? Jesus is offering you His eternal living water. Put your faith in Him, and drink!