She just wanted a drink of water. That’s all the girl wanted.
I was visiting my daughter Kaley while we worked on a book. Being a gracious hostess, she took the blow-up mattress on the floor and gave me her bed. Her apartment was cute but with a sort of hobbit-sized bedroom, so with the air mattress, bed, dresser and my suitcase, there was not really any part of the floor still showing. Which would’ve been fine.
Except that in the night, Kaley wanted that drink of water.
She was thoughtfully, quietly, sneaking back into the room in the dark, glass of water in hand, when she accidentally stepped on the corner of the air mattress. It made some sort of ridiculous squawk so she jumped off. I was coming out of a dead sleep when I heard that dreaded “sh-sh-sh-sh” sound. Air mattress! Going down! I vaulted out of the bed, across the mattress and threw on the light.
We thought maybe the stopper had popped out. But as I wildly ripped the sheet off, we found it intact. Where was that leak?! For several minutes I frantically searched. Until I realized Kaley had one foot on the mattress, and the other foot inside my suitcase. And the “sh-sh-sh-sh” sound was coming from in there.
“Oh my word, Kaley! You’re standing on my hairspray!”
At that, she jet-propelled out of the suitcase and landed in an almost perfect sitting position on the bed. Of course, the water also jet-propelled. Out of the glass and straight up. Then down. And somehow it managed to get both beds.
Two seconds of silence. Then…uproarious laughter. All that for a glass of water—that she didn’t even drink.
Do you ever wake up in the night hungry or thirsty? Sometimes those hungers and thirsts can be persistent little rascals. That’s true when it comes to our soul-hungers and soul-thirsts too. The truth is, every soul thirsts for something. The problems is that our fleshly tendency is to satisfy it with something of this earth.
Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied,” (Matt 5:6).
There’s no instant fix for a soul hunger and thirst. Our deepest longings are satisfied in Christ, by and through His righteousness. Striving to fill our spiritual emptiness with anything else will leave us frustrated and empty.
The words of Jesus in Matthew 5:6—there’s a grand message of hope to those who have yet to follow Christ right there. He will quench every deep soul-thirst as we allow Him to be our righteousness.
And to those of us who have already trusted in Christ, there’s a challenge to continually ask the questions: What am I hungering and thirsting after right this minute? Am I finding my satisfaction only in Christ? Am I delighting in following Him and living in His righteousness? Am I passionately longing for a life completely immersed in that righteousness?
“As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for You, God” (Psalm 42:1). Thirsting for Him needs to be a part of our every day. It’s how we can make sure we’re not trying to live with one foot in His will, one foot in the world. If there’s a foot in the world, there’s always going to be a mess.
Also, if there’s a foot in the suitcase, also…mess. My clothes are still pretty starchy.