Our altar is a water well, a well of spirit water. For why would any of us come to the altar if not to sip the spirit, to drink in something life-giving that nourishes our souls? But of course if anyone has ever peered into a well, first there is darkness. First we feel an abyss. The water well reminds us that in order to reach the life giving water, we must first enter the deep black. Passiontide, this time before Easter, celebrates that there is living water in what is dark.

In every human heart there are also places that are deep and dark. This is because we are also meant to feel empty from time to time. We are designed not know all the answers, to find ourselves lying lamenting on the ground. We are designed to feel alone. But the good news is that since Christ came, all these sources of pain are now water wells.

And yet, anyone who descends into a well does so with trust, trust that water can be found. And this is the most important thing for our journey into the blackness; that we trust even when we can’t see, even when we must fall to our knees, He is close to us! That in the depths of our emptiness, in the center of our woundedness, His living water to be found.

Courage to descend. A willingness to feel our longing for the Spirit. Trust, that the living water is in the darkness.

These are our tools for the well.

May we find Him there.
This contemplation by Rev. Evans was inspired by Passiontide