Family Lenten Devotionals 2024
Essentials for the Journey
Week 5 of Lent – Water: Enjoying Refreshment

The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?”

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”

–John 4:11-14

Written by Cayanna Herrera, Director of Children’s Ministry

When I was eight years old, my family moved into the house where I grew up. The very next summer, the well that provided water for our home went dry and we needed to drill a new one. It took weeks and while we waited for the work to be completed, we had no water in our house! No water to cook or shower or brush our teeth. My dad put a large water tank on the back of his pickup truck and several times a week, he would fill the tank with a garden hose before he left work and would haul the water home so that we had water at home.  

We had to wait for several weeks until the drilling company could schedule work to begin on drilling a new well on our land. The day the well drilling truck arrived at our house we were so excited to get the project started. Work began and the workers began to drill our new well. After what seemed like weeks of work but was probably only a few days, the workers came to tell my parents that they had finally reached the underground aquifer and that the drilling portion of the job was complete. The last steps of putting in a few pipes from the well to the house and installing a new pump to bring water up from the aquifer were all that were needed and we would once again have water when we turned on our faucets.  

How excited we were the first time we were able to turn on the faucet and sweet, clear, cold water ran out! We thanked God every time we got a glass of water, turned on the shower, or turned on the sprinklers to water the garden. It seemed like a miracle to have cold, running water after weeks of having to haul it. That water was the most refreshing thing we had experienced in quite some time and we relished every drop. 

And I wonder, what could the water in today’s scripture really be? Is it just water to drink or could it be something more as well? Could the water that Jesus is talking about be more than a drink? Could it be something that refreshes me in a different way that taking a drink, or a shower, or even could be more refreshing than a swim? I wonder, what refreshes me and renews me in my daily life? What refreshes you? Where are you in this scripture? What part is about you? I don’t know…only you know. And today, I pray you discover the water that Jesus is talking about and are refreshed! 

Family Activity
List as many ways as you can that you find refreshment either as an individual or as a family. What helps you to feel refreshed? When you have a list of refreshing activities, decide as a family which activities you would like to participate in this week! Enjoy your time as a family together and be refreshed!