Throughout the Bible there are many different images that describe the spiritual life. Among the most popular images is that of drinking from a stream of water.
One of the first biblical stories that was later used to describe this spiritual image is the story of Moses striking the rock in the desert:
Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.
While this story refers to physical water that God gave to his people, it helped prepare the way for future images of Jesus as the water.
Rivers of living water
Jesus himself spoke using this imagery, referring to himself as water to drink:
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”
St. Gregory of Nyssa took this spiritual analogy and compared it to the spiritual life and how we are to drink freely of this water:
[Jesus] is like a pure, untainted stream. If you draw from him the thoughts in your mind and the inclinations of your heart, you will show a likeness to Christ, your source and origin, as the gleaming water in a jar resembles the flowing water from which it was obtained.
The more we drink from this water, the more we will resemble it in our lives:
For the purity of Christ and the purity that is manifest in our hearts are identical. Christ’s purity, however, is the fountainhead; ours has its source in him and flows out of him. Our life is stamped with the beauty of his thought. The inner and the outer man are harmonized in a kind of music.
If your own spiritual life is lacking, consider recalling to mind these images and refresh your soul with the waters that flow from Jesus Christ.
