The value of water

Water: it's free right?

I mean, I pay a water bill but that's to make sure the water that comes out the tap is clean. But, water itself, that's free. It falls from the sky (a lot) and it's just there waiting to be used.

But is it really?

I've just returned from Uganda where I was working on a Water and Sanitation project. Whilst I was away I discovered that water really does have a value. For me, living in the UK I expect clean, drinkable water to come out of the tap whenever I want. But, for some of the members of the community I was working in water had a value.

Water meant a trip down a steep valley.

It meant climbing back up with a jerry can of water, either 5, 10, 15 or 20L. 

It meant being late and tired for school as many children collected water before school.

It meant having to collect water again in the evening.

It was limited. 20L isn't that much.

But most importantly, water means life. Without water we wouldn't survive.

And yet, water is something I take for granted. So far this morning I've:

- filled the bath with water to soak my clothes.

- used the washing machine.

- had a cuppa.

- had a shower.

- flushed the toilet.

- washed my hands.

- hand washed some more clothes.

And all without thinking. 

I'm pretty disgusted with myself, I thought after a month of valuing the importance of water, of collecting the water from the valley (to realised how hard it was) to having limited water to shower/wash in, I would remember it's importance. But I've not. 

Jesus says:

Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

John 4:13-14

And, like my ease of forgetting the importance of water, I also forget the importance of Jesus. Just because my life is currently full of water (yes, it's raining outside) doesn't mean I should forget water's value. But, more seriously, just because I feel okay, my life is going where I want it to, doesn't mean I should forget my Lord and my Saviour, my King and my friend, my support and my joy. And yet, I do. I forget that Jesus is everlasting life, that Jesus is who I should be worshipping in my every act, in my every thought, in my every breath.