Travel Reflections: The Fountain (Madrid, Spain)

Pictures. Some have claimed they're worth a thousand words. That saying might be debated; but from my experience, I've found art museums packed with paintings akin to libraries laden with literary masterpieces.

Thomas and I were headed to the Netherlands when, after waiting in line at passport control for hours, we faced a missed flight and several-hour layover in Madrid.  To no avail, we searched for tickets to several history museums. At last, we found availability at a local art museum.  Two buses transferred us to downtown Madrid, where we ambled past throngs of people and headed to the Thyssen-Boremismza National Museum of Art.

 

While there, I chanced upon this painting.  Reading its background in a head note, I began to ponder people’s pastimes and the life-giving quality of fountains.  

 

American artist John Sloan painted Throbbing Fountain, Madison Square (pictured below), in 1907.  At the spot in New York, Sloan observed “men and women and children watching [the fountain] and in many cases feeling its…charm.”

Water fascinates.  Now living less than two miles from the Pacific Ocean, I can’t help but feel the allure of the impressive deep. The roar of the high seas, their blue immensity, and the picturesque crests and waves never fail to captivate. I love to bask in the ocean’s beauty as the wind whips my face while I step across the sandy shore. 

 

But a water fountain? How often do people today find themselves mesmerized by its pleasures?  From my observation, many pass such delights, digital devices in hand, failing to imbibe the beauty about them.

 

Centuries past, explorers wondered at the possibility of a fountain of youth.  And yet, in the pages of God’s eternal Word, such a fountain can be found—albeit a spiritual one.

 

Psalm 36:9 declares, “For with thee [God] is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.” 

 

Verses like these remind us: life that lasts forever exists in the presence of God.  

 

Can we live forever? 

 

And when does such life begin?

 

In John 17:3 Christ stated, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”  It’s glorious to consider: knowing God is the essence of possessing eternal life.

 

And that eternal life becomes yours the moment you repent and believe the Gospel.  Before salvation, we cannot know God, for sin separates us from Him, the Being who is the very definition of all that is holy, just, and good. Jesus Christ’s death and shed blood on the cross is the only payment for our sin.  When we turn in repentant faith to Him, we enter into a beautiful, life-giving relationship with the God Who makes our escape from Hell possible.  

 

In John 4, Jesus explained it this way: “Whosoever drinketh of [physical well] water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:13-14).

 

Incredible! Every spiritual longing within the human heart is met in Christ, Who lives in believers, directing them into truth with His Word.  The benefits fountain-access provides are immeasurable: Proverbs explains (among other things) that the fount helps us depart from the entanglements of death.  

 

Unlike the temporary thrill offered to the visitors of Madison Square in days gone by, Christ the everlasting Fount, promises blessings of the eternal variety.  

 

A tune is cascading down the corridors of my mind. In our early twenties, my sister and I often sang it as a duet in church. I’m quoting the poem from memory, not having a copy of the lyrics with me and not being able to locate them on Internet searches; but it’s a powerful little piece, reminding of this life-giving Spring:

“As you walk along, with the worldly throng,

Did you ever stop to think

Where you’re going or

What you’re searching for

When of pleasure’s springs you drink?
 

After all you’ve tried, still unsatisfied,

You go on with thirsting soul;

Listen, troubled heart,

E’er the chance depart—

There’s a fountain you should know!

 

Chorus: There’s a fountain flowing free with living water;

It is offered unto lost and dying men;

Come and drink its full salvation;

You will never, never thirst again!

 

Vain and revelry, popularity—

Leave no lasting peace of mind,

Drink them while you will,

You’ll be thirsty still

And no satisfaction find;

 

Sin brings deep regret,

Things you can’t forget;

Wretched scars and unreached goals;

Why, oh sinner why

Do you choose to die,

When the Savior loves you so?

 

Chorus: There’s a fountain flowing free with living water;

It is offered unto lost and dying men;

Come and drink its full salvation;

You will never, never thirst again!

 

Have you come to Christ, the eternal fountain?   

This Fount is available for all who recognize their own spiritual poverty and turn in faith to the only possible Substitute for sin’s wretched fate. Christ longs for you to receive Him as your own.  His plea cries out even from the Bible's final chapter:

       "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.  

        And let him that heareth say, Come. 

                                                        And let him that is athirst come.  

                                                        And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” 

                                                                                                                           (Revelation 22:17).