In this modern society obsessed with youth and living life to the fullest, are we still looking for the Fountain of Youth? You bet!
What fuels this insatiable appetite for a miracle cure for wrinkles, muscle loss, and longevity? Why do humans want to live forever?
The simple answer: pride. We despise the notion of turning back to dust. We don’t like the idea of getting weaker and older. We just want to live forever…
The famous explorer Juan Ponce de León accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the New World in 1493. The local indian tribes told him about a remarkable place called Bimini where a natural spring bestowed youth and prosperity on those who drank from it. His search for these miraculous waters was said to have been one of the reasons he sailed north from Puerto Rico in 1513 on an exploratory voyage. He had in his pocket a grant from the King of Spain giving him the right to rule whatever lands he should find.
He sailed northward along islands in the Bahamas, and then turned west and crossed open water until he reached what seemed to be a large island that he named La Florida, the land of flowers. He had landed on America’s east coast and is believed to have landed in the vicinity of St. Augustine. This is the present day site of one of the so called sites of the actual Fountain of Youth.
However, there is also another location in the Isles of the Bahamas which has asserted a claim to the famed Fountain of Youth. This cluster is fittingly named the Bimini islands, in keeping with the original tribal legend. There on South Bimini Island, is a freshwater well still standing with a plaque identifying it as the Fountain of Youth. These shallow pools of water found on the islands, such as the well-known Healing Hole, are rich with minerals and other healing properties. People say that bathing in those waters make them feel completely restored and rejuvenated.
In modern times fountains have often been a symbol of wealth and status. Great estates in the rolling hillsides of Europe feature grand, ornate fountains – lavishly gushing forth over their alabaster carved rims. Many times they featured a statue of a prominent local figure or war hero. Often they displayed beautiful young women or children playing in the streams of cascading water. Birds drink freely as it pools and gurgles, and lovers cast coins into them for good luck.
However, a fountain in biblical times often denoted a spring of water issuing from the earth. In the parched countryside near the desert - springs, pools, pits, cisterns and fountains represented life and was the basis for the naming of many towns and locations including Enam, meaning “two springs” (Joshua 15). Proverbs 13:14 characterized God’s law as, “a fountain of life…” David speaks of the lovingkindness of God in Psalms 36:9 this way: “For with You is the fountain of life…”
In Jesus’ day, healing properties were thought to reside in the Pool of Bethesda, a spring-fed rock hewn reservoir in Jerusalem which was surrounded by five porches. This is the location in John Chapter 5 where we are told the waters were stirred by an angel prior to people descending into them. The blind, the lame, the paralyzed, and the infirmed often came to bathe within its walls – believing for a miraculous healing. It is documented in Scripture that Jesus healed a man there who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
In Jeremiah 2:13 the prophet gives his first sermon to a wicked generation. He relayed what the Lord God of Israel said to the people residing in Judah; “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns – broken cisterns that can hold no water.” God’s people had rejected Him as their life source and strength.
In the New Testament Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4:14, “but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
So what are you looking for? The latest cryogenics treatment? A more potent bio-identical hormone injection? Molecular engineering? A new super-food or other nutritional breakthrough?
As believers, we now have a perpetual rejuvenation in Christ. We are slowly changing from mortality to immortality. From death to life. We have been promised a new body in the resurrection, and an eternal home with Jesus in heaven. It can’t get any better than that…
The hymnist William Cowper suffered from deep depression for most of his life. In 1764 he found himself within the walls of an institution for the mentally ill. There in the asylum, he found Christ through reading the Bible. Despite his emotional pain, and while institutionalized, he penned this magnificent hymn, which is based on Zechariah 13:1, “On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David… to cleanse them from sin and impurity.”
Here is the first stanza of There Is a Fountain Filled With Blood -
There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins,
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains,
Lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.
Deborah is the author of a Christian non-fiction book titled “Mission Possible”. It is written for women who love the Lord Jesus, but their spouse doesn’t share their passion. It will encourage and challenge the reader to embrace God’s promises for their spouse and future together.
