“I stretch out my hands to you; my whole being is like dry dirt, thirsting for you.”                Psalm 143:6 CEB

My wife, Julie, recently had a baby dwarf lemon tree shipped to our apartment. When we pulled it out of the box it looked very sad (think Charlie Brown Christmas). I was certain it had come to us dead on arrival, but Julie had hope— so we lovingly placed the little leprous-looking lemon tree into a pot of fresh fertilized soil and watered it appropriately.

The very next day, our fresh, hydrated pot of soil was dry as dust. Clearly the little tree had slurped up all the water from the dirt, and yet it didn’t look any better. In fact, some of its wilted leaves had fallen off. We continued to nurse our little friend day after day. The soil continued to dry up, the leaves continued to fall.

It wasn’t until about a week later that we saw the transformation. The once brown baby branches were becoming bright green with new leaves that reached up to the sun with confidence. A week after that, new stems were shooting up out of the soil— our little adopted tree was suddenly twice the size it had been when it arrived.

Have you ever felt so thirsty you thought you would die?

“whoever drinks from the water that I will give will never be thirsty again. The water that I give will become in those who drink it a spring of water that bubbles up into eternal life.” – John 4:14

The kind of thirst Jesus was referring to is an on-death’s-door kind of thirst, only he didn’t mean physical dehydration. Jesus was explaining to the woman at the well that those who put their trust in him will never again have to feel as if their souls are dried up and purposeless. God has given Christ’s followers the gift of the Holy Spirit, a never-ending fountain of living water that springs up within our hearts whenever we are spiritually parched.

Those who have the gift of the Holy Spirit don’t have to travel to Jerusalem or even to the local church building to connect with God. We have direct access to the giver of all life, the satisfier of our souls. All we need to do is confess our need for the Lord, above all else, as we stretch out our hands in prayer.

Dear God, at times our souls feel empty. The anxieties of life can be exhausting. Lord, refresh our hearts with your Holy Spirit. Help us to trust that, even when we don’t see immediate results, you are steadily nourishing us like trees planted by streams of living water. Amen.