Have you ever been going through something so difficult, it feels like you’re trapped in a barren wasteland with no water in sight?
Maria Eckersley, the author of Teaching Easter, is deeply familiar with such experiences. For nine years, her husband has faced pancreatic cancer—a journey that’s helped Maria turn to the Savior’s Atonement for comfort and strength. On a recent episode of the All In podcast, she shares a phrase that’s helped her drink more deeply of the Savior’s living water, even in metaphorically “parched” places.
There Is Water Everywhere
Maria recalls learning in elementary school that there are aquifers virtually everywhere beneath the earth’s surface. Aquifers are water-bearing layers of rock and gravel that provide groundwater for irrigation and drinking.
“I remember being so excited by that concept that ‘there’s water everywhere,’” she says. “If you just [dig] deep enough, you can find it.”
She believes we will discover the same principle as we develop our relationship with the Lord.
For example, in Genesis 26, the patriarch Isaac digs many wells as a means of providing water for his flocks and his household. However, local herdsmen repeatedly claim the land as their own and force Isaac and his men to dig elsewhere.
“In every place he goes to, [Isaac] creates this connection to a life-giving source,” Maria explains. “It’s just this remarkable thing to see. And the more I think about joy or a lasting [and] abiding confidence, I feel like it’s like digging a well.”
Similarly, she believes there’s living water in all areas of our lives, even when the terrain might seem barren:
“What [the Lord] says is, ‘You come to me, you seek my guidance, and you put the work in. You’re going to have to dig, and sometimes you have to dig for a while, but I promise you, there’s water.’”
Maria acknowledges that it can take a while to fully realize this truth. Sometimes, it requires wandering through many wastelands to see that, again and again, we can receive comfort, guidance, blessings, and perspective.
“I think it happens over time,” she says. “But there always is water. Mortality always works. … It just sometimes takes a lot of prayer and a lot of effort.”
The Well Is in Us
Because Christ is an abundant and life-giving source, our connection to Him can constantly be growing.
In John 4:14, He explains to a Samaritan woman at a well that whoever drinks of His water will never thirst, saying, “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.”
It may seem like an obvious statement, but our connection to Him isn’t like an external tangible substance that can be pumped from the ground or mined from a mountain. Rather, it’s an internal spiritual connection that we can choose to develop within our hearts. In Galatians 2, Paul explains this concept when he says, “Christ liveth in me.”
And Jesus tells His Apostles in Matthew 28:20, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
This means that, regardless of the difficulties we have to bear in mortality, we have constant, internal access to the Savior and His Atonement.
Maria believes that one of the best times to connect to Him is during the Easter season. “I see Easter [as] focused on ... receiving,” Maria explains. “It’s a time for us to celebrate that gift [of His Atonement], to appreciate it, maybe to emulate it. But it’s really all about receiving. And I think there’s some tenderness in that.”
This Easter season, may we focus on finding His love all around us. If we dig, we can always receive water.
Hear more from Maria on the full All In episode.
Make Easter more than a day
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