Back in the "good old days", when we went to Wilberton to see my grandmother, I would go outside to the well and draw water.  Everyone had a well in small towns in the early 1040's.  Hers had a wood stave bucket held together with metal strips and a handle  that was attached to a pulley.   There was a metal wheel over the well that had a rope that you used to "pulley" the bucket down into the well and when the bucket was full you pulled it up.  The wheels turned and the bucket came up full of water.

The taste of  that water was much different than what we get out of the tap in our houses.  It was spring water.  Clear, pure and really sweet.  No chemicals.  And very cold.  I can still taste it.

Gran also had a Jersey cow.  Jersey cows are known for the milk they produce.  She and I would go to the barn and Gran would get a three-legged stool and milk the cow every morning and every evening.  I remember a stray cat that would show up when she milked and sit waiting until Gran squirted a stream of milk through the air.  The cat never missed the milk.  I think Gran and the cat had an arrangement.  Gran would see that the cat got milk and the cat would keep mice out of the barn.

We would let the milk sit until the cream rose to the top.  Then skim it off and put it in the churn to make butter.  Everyone ate butter on everything back then.  And they all lived  past their eighties.

All of that is foreign to people today.  Nobody goes to their grandmother's house and churns butter.  Very few people will ever see a well.

Jesus was going to Galilee and had to go through Samaria.  John 4:6a, 10 "Now Jacob's well was there.  Jesus….being weary with his journey, sat…on the well;  Then a woman came…to draw water: Jesus said to her, Give me to drink."  The woman knew the Jews hated the Samaritans and asked him why he was speaking to her, a woman.  "Jesus answered and said, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give me a drink; you would have asked of him and he would have given you living water."

The living water is free.  All you have to do is ask for it.