"A fountain within him, leaping up to provide eternal life"
Every one of us has experienced thirst, especially physical thirst. When we do so, the only thing that shall quench our thirst would be either a refreshment or just plain water. If we live in a hot environment, we know how much value drinking water is to us. The hot environment makes us easily perspire and so we lose a lot of water from our body. We take more occasions to drink water and we finally realize that we shall always be thirsty if the heat never lets up. The hotter the weather becomes, the more we need water.
If we make an analogy for the need for God, then when we are in an environment of sin and sinfulness and darkness and degeneration, then those of us who truly need God to live, need Him more and more every moment of our life. Are we in such an environment already? If compared to the weather that is becoming hotter and hotter and the need for water is greater, if our environment is degenerating more and more everyday, then indeed our thirst for God and His most Holy Spirit will be increased all the more.
We are not to worry and to fret and to be frightened when the time comes when the world becomes really very sinful again. If we trust in the Lord with our whole heart, with our whole mind, with our entire soul and our entire strength and if we hope in Him as if He is the only Hope we really need, then we are like a tree that is planted near the waterside. This tree stretches out its roots to the stream where it gets its nourishment. This tree does not fear when the heat comes or drought arrives because its leaves stay green and it continues to bear fruit - all because its roots are stretched out to the water.
How much more we are if we stretch out our roots, as it were, to the Holy Spirit. Then the water shall become like fountains within us leaping up to provide us with eternal life.
