Noon laid fire on Sychar,

The road had drawn him dry.

He sat beside old Jacob's well

Beneath the burning sky.

A woman came with earthen weight,

Expecting rope and stone;

A stranger asked her for a drink,

And crossed a line well known.

"How asks a Jew of Samaria?"

The question held the years.

He answered with a deeper gift

Than any well could bear.

The water that he gives

Will rise and never leave,

A spring within the thirsty heart,

A life the soul receives.

Drink from the earth and thirst returns;

Drink what heaven gives,

And living water rises up

To everlasting life.

"The well is deep, thou hast no rope;

Art thou greater than Jacob here?"

She measured every answer

By the vessel in her hand.

"Give me this water," then she said,

"That thirst may lose its claim."

He touched the hidden history

She had not come to name.

Five husbands.

One beside her now not hers.

No accusation wasted.

Only truth that reached the thirst.

"Sir, I perceive a prophet."

Then mountain answered town:

"Where must the faithful worship?

Where should the knees bow down?"

The hour was moving closer

When neither place would bind;

The Father seeks the worshipper

In spirit and in truth.

"Messiah comes and tells us all."

The answer stood so near:

The one who spoke across the well

Was the promised one she feared.

The disciples found them talking,

But no one asked him why;

She left the jar that brought her there

And ran beneath the sky.

The water that he gives

Will rise and never leave,

A spring within the thirsty heart,

A life the soul receives.

Drink from the earth and thirst returns;

Drink what heaven gives,

And living water rises up

To everlasting life.

"Come see a man who told me all

The life I tried to hide.

Could this be Christ?" The city moved

Beyond the gates outside.

The disciples urged him, "Master, eat,"

But other bread was near:

To do the Father's will and reap

The field already clear.

Lift up your eyes, the fields are white;

The sower and the reaper meet.

One woman's word became a road

For many willing feet.

Then many heard him for themselves

And gave the larger word:

"This is indeed the Christ,

The Saviour of the world."

The waterpot stayed by the well.

The living water reached the town.