In life, we are searching for something, whether that something is a house, a car, a job, school, or love. We spend the majority of our lives searching for the best thing available or the next best thing popular. We spend countless hours searching for those things that will appeal and appease us the most. People spend their entire life searching for those temporary things that will bring them temporary pleasure to fulfill a thirst. People say it’s not a thirst. They say it’s a want. When the satisfaction doesn’t come, they are after the next best thing.
There are events in the Bible that, to some extent, still resonate with us today. The woman with the issue of blood for twelve years was on a search for healing. The Bible recorded her spending all of her money for a cure that never came to conquer her illness. Until a man from Galilee named Jesus showed up on the scene and set her free. She used all of her funds, but there was no cure. She had the faith to push her way through the crowd to touch the hem of Jesus’s robe. He was enough to her emptiness.
The ten men with leprosy surely lived an empty, isolated life. No one wanted a diseased person around them, so they were often banned from gathering with others. The Jewish law required diseased people to keep their distance from others. The leaders were afraid of a breakout among the community. But when they saw Jesus, they called out, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us.” Jesus gave them instructions. Their faith ignited as they followed what was told to them. They received their healing. He was enough to their emptiness.
The lady at the well had been looking for love in all the wrong faces. She had five husbands, and the one she was now involved with wasn’t her husband. When Jesus approached her, she was attending to her business of drawing water from a well. He asked her for a drink of water before giving her living water, where she would never thirst again. “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14.)
I can share a story of my own. It is very much relatable to the events in the Bible. It involves my own search for love. I moved from relationship to relationship, looking and hoping to partner with the right one. When times of trouble arose, I was ready to get away. The Lord helped me understand that what I needed was Him, not them. I was empty until Jesus Christ became enough, and I will never thirst again. He showed me that he was the way, the truth, and the life. Only in Christ and through him are we made whole.
Many people are looking for who they are, where they are going, and various ways to get there. They have many plans to make their dreams come true. They are searching for the very thing that will give them value. They obtain what they have chased all of their life. Then they find out it’s not as satisfying as they thought it would be. They find themselves on the road to the next best thing. Jesus Christ is enough. He gave all of himself so that we wouldn’t lack anything. He is enough for our emptiness.
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