One of the most astounding things I have ever seen I came upon by chance as I was making my way by myself on an unfamiliar dirt path in Wild Rivers National Park in Missouri. I wasn’t expecting anything in particular, just trying to be alert to whatever God had in mind for me. Then, I heard a rustling of water, not exactly the flowing sound a river makes, more of a rushing sound. I parted some brushes and there before me was a clear torrent of water flowing out of an enormous hole in the ground, a thing that seemed impossible to me. I had never seen a spring before.
I made my way around the clear, cold water, fascinated by the immense quantity that gushed out of the ground and the vegetation that grew in the cold water at the spring’s edges. Some of it looked to me like lettuce, rich dark green leaves rooted underwater along the edges of the spring. How could that deep green plant thrive under frigid flowing water? But more to the point: From where comes this immense quantity of fresh water pushing up out of the earth?
I found out this huge spring of perpetually flowing limpid water is called Big Springs.” Two-hundred and fifty million gallons flows out of this hole in the ground each day. It is the source of the Current River in Missouri.
The website for Big Springs says that “underground passages carry water from as far as 45 miles away to emerge at the spring. Studies have shown that the water is carrying a load of dissolved limestone equivalent to 70 tons a day! This dissolved rock gives the spring its deep blue color and the rushing water is carving out a conduit underground. Should the spring ever go dry, a huge cave will be the result.”
I love flowing waters 
that know where they are going. The Illinois River this morning four blocks from my home is flowing toward the Mississippi downstate. Even mostly quiet waters like the vast expanse of Lake Michigan is beautiful and calming to my heart. It moves but stays put. Big Springs water goes out to create the Current River, one of the “wild” rivers of the U.S. park system.
When Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman about His promise of “living water,” that is, the promise of amazing grace– I generally thought that he was speaking of a small creek or water seeping out of a knoll. But the wonder of Big Springs challenges my small thinking and urges me to think deeper about Jesus and his gift of grace as a torrent of living water that can cleanse and refresh my soul.
“The water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14). The Holy Spirit wells-up and out of even souls like me. And you. But, we have to think bigger!