Water

"Jesus answered, '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)

For devotions yesterday, I was reading about the story of the Samaritan woman.  It is clear that true satisfaction comes only from God; and that what He offers is for eternity.   And the greatest gift He offers is salvation and eternal life.  Whereas, the eternal perspective involves the super-natural or spiritual; however, I also realized that though everything on earth is just temporal, still while we are here on this earth, we do have physical needs, such as hunger and thirst.   In the same way that food and water satisfy those needs, albeit temporarily, our need for relationship is satisfied through people. 

Regarding my thorn, I understand that "His Grace is sufficient for me"; and, I may have sometimes taken that to mean that if I focused enough on HIM, I shouldn't be feeling the pain of the thorn.  However, while we are here on earth in this physical human body, when a thorn pricks us, we will bleed and it will hurt.  That is natural and normal; and won't go away.

So, I think the proper perspective is always to keep our eyes on things above, seeing all things in light of eternity.   However, also recognize that until we are in glory, we will have needs and will suffer from the weaknesses that come from being human.   We can place our hope in glory; but, understand that we are still here on earth at this time, and try to keep the proper balance and perspective.