Thirsting: Quenching Our Soul's Deepest DesireSample

Deep Calls to Deep

In John’s gospel we find Jesus standing in the marketplace, crying, “If anyone thirsts … come to me and drink” (John 7:37). It was the last day of a great feast, and Jesus chose this moment to stand in the middle of the jubilant crowds and declare that He was the object of humanity’s desire. Right there, when the people had everything they needed to fill their stomachs within reach, at the peak of celebration, joy, and community, Jesus pointed to Himself as if to say, “It’s Me, I’m the one you really want.”

If you’ve ever risked telling someone you love them, you’ll have a taste of how Jesus must have felt that day There as He declares His longing to be longed for, He makes Himself profoundly available and vulnerable, hoping for our response.

Today, in this “easy access, goods-saturated, whatever-we-want-at-our-fingertips” world, He’s doing the same. He’s calling us heavenward, to feast on something richer than anything in this world. All those things are good gifts, but they don’t satisfy. They are “broken cisterns that can’t hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13). Jesus knows it. Deep down I believe we all do.

It could be said that all of the biblical story is simply one big love letter from God to humanity, to you personally, to me, saying “I want you”—not only love but want. That beneath the low hum of human consciousness, hidden amidst molecules and atoms, in the sound of the wind touching trees, the gentle lapping of the shore’s waters, and in the outstretched arms of a Nazarene Carpenter, one aching question: “Will you love me back?”

The whole gospel is simply an invitation to respond “Yes” with all our being.

We are, you are, being pursued. In movements and language unfamiliar to your life-worn senses, God wants you, is after you in your deepest places. This pursuit is so much more than an existential exchange. It’s a deep calling to deep longing (Psalm 42:7) for the mingling of your being with He who created you. It’s what you were made for.

God longs for us to drink Him. Beneath our pain, our cautious hopes and desperate longings, the Spirit gently speaks to us, lovingly and persistently asking, “Beloved, will you love me back?”

What would it look like in your life to love Jesus back today?