The pictures of devastation from the wrath of Hurricane Sandy fill website after website.

Ground zero in New York transformed into a rushing waterfall overnight.

Many highways, once filled with bumper-to-bumper traffic, are now filled with water.

Tops of cars peek from water that now fills the roads on which they were parked.

Piers lay in rubble.

The Eastern coast of America faces a long and difficult journey and will lean on the rest of the world for assistance, strength, and prayers.

But as I was clicking through photos this morning,

these two struck me in a significant way after reading of one of Jesus' last conversations with the disciples  before the intense moments of his betrayal were to begin.

In the midst of all the preparations for Hurricane Sandy, some people knew what they really needed in order to survive a disaster in life......

bread and water.

Even in the town where I live, the bread aisle seems to empty first when a snowstorm is predicted.

And water goes almost as quickly.

People seem to have a sense of what they will miss most if food runs short.

And in a spiritual sense, things aren't much different.

Jesus explains it this way to his disciples in John 6,

So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you?

What will you do?  Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"

Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven,

but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.  

For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

"Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread."

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

In John 7, Jesus sits by a well waiting for his disciples, and as He is waiting a Samaritan woman comes to the well to fill her jars.

He takes this opportunity to teach another lesson.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?"  (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?   Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

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."

This morning if you feel as if you have reached the spiritual bread or water aisle and found it coming up short,

take a minute to tell God how you feel.

Ask Him to send an extra-special measure of Jesus into your life today.

God longs to restock, restore, refresh, and reenergize our souls...........

Even in the midst of hurricane-destroyed lives, God is there.

This world and all of its temporary pleasures will one day be a foggy memory.

The only thing we will need for eternity is the bread and water Jesus offers through a relationship with Him.

Praying you turn to Him and satisfy a longing deep in your soul.

He's there.

He's waiting.

He's enough.