One of the first places we worked when my husband was in graduate school was way out in the mountains of northern Nevada...my husband was hired for the summer to map a certain area for a mining company...
We had a 16 foot travel trailer, an old Scout for transportation and lived at an old homestead with no buildings, just a stone foundation, one fruit tree, one shade tree and a cistern with fresh water...
My husband dug a hole next to one of the trees for our "outhouse"... We parked next to the other tree for shade...no electricity, gas for cooking and a forty mile drive over graveled roads to town, laundry and shopping...
Driving that Scout was an adventure...the dust roiled in through every hole until we were covered with dust from head to toe and then some...I think if we would have had duct tape at the time, we would have used it for covering up the holes... But we made do and took baths when we could instead...
That is why we enjoyed the cistern each day so much...we had two wash tubs, some scraps of lumber from the decomposing cabin and a hose...so my husband syphoned the water from the cistern down a little slope to the washtubs which sat on the lumber...so we had two "bathtubs" each evening to enjoy...(the wild horses enjoyed the fresh water as well)...an amazing open view as we washed the days grim off...
I know I have written about this before, but reading about cisterns in the Word brought it to mind again...Joseph was thrown into a cistern which was dry, fortunately for him...Jeremiah was thrown into a cistern which was muddy....the Samaritan woman drew out of a cistern, but wanting the living water which Jesus offered....and we are offered the free gift of the water of life...
Out in the mountains where we were, we couldn't have lived without that wonderful fresh water bubbling each day for our cleansing and use...it was truly a gift...and life not only for us but the animals roaming the area...
Thank YOU for the water of life that You offer to everyone who comes and asks...freely bestowed...
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.
Revelation 22:17
John 4:3-43
“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
Jeremiah 2:13
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