Come, Drink of the Fountain of Living Waters

Niagara Falls astounded me!  What an awe-inspiring force of nature with its 5.9 million cubic feet of water rushing over the falls every minute.

On another day, I stumbled upon a little spring in a Scottish field. The water bubbled gently at the surface then flowed in an almost imperceptible rivulet through the field.

Both the little spring and Niagara Falls perpetually flowed as fountains of water.

Fountain of Living Waters

What image comes to mind when you visualize the fountain of living waters? Is it a gushing waterfall or a rivulet?

When imagining who is the fountain of living waters, of course, Jesus Christ springs to mind.

Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. John 7:37

Yea, if they will come, they may, and partake of the waters of life freely. Doctrine and Covenants 10:66

What image comes to mind when you visualize Jesus Christ as the fountain of living waters?  How do you partake of the water He offers?

Living Waters Heals the Dead Sea

One of my very favorite end-time prophecies is Ezekiel’s vision of the fountain of water springing from Jerusalem’s temple.

[W]aters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar.

Ezekiel saw that the water became a river, first as deep as his ankles, then as deep as his knees, then loins, then so deep he had to swim. The river flowed from the temple to the Dead Sea.  The river healed that giant salt depository and everything else.

These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed.

And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh.

Jeremiah Rebukes Those Who Forsake the Fountain of Living Waters

With all of these fountain of water images in mind, Jeremiah’s rebuke jars my senses.

For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

And

O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.

They abandoned the Lord as the fountain of living water in favor of some self-made water container.  Water in a cistern is dammed, non-flowing.

The Dead Sea is a great visual of what I see as a broken cistern (though the Dead Sea is not manmade.) The Jordan River flows into the Dead Sea, but the Dead Sea acts as a cistern, holding the water without an outlet. Even though the Jordan River supplies the Dead Sea with fresh water, the water sits or evaporates and sediments hamper the water’s purity until, finally, the whole sea is dead, prohibiting life.

What cisterns do we create to subvert our reliance on the fountain of living waters?

The Fountain of Living Waters Heals

I feel like Jeremiah saw the deadening impact of cisterns, too, and knew that the only antidote for broken, empty, contaminated cisterns is the fountain of living waters.

O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.

Helaman knew the impact too.

O repent ye, repent ye! Why will ye die? Turn ye, turn ye unto the Lord your God.

We can freely quench our thirst with Living Water.

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. . . .

Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you . . . .

What image comes to mind when you visualize the fountain of living waters? Has it changed?

It has changed for me!