Revelation 22:17: Whoever Hears Says Come

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

Revelation 22:17 (NIV)

Whoever Hears Says Come

The fridge stands in the church parking lot on a square of plywood, plugged into an extension cord that runs in under the side door. Somebody painted the outside of it once and somebody else painted over that. There’s an index card taped inside the door, in marker: TAKE WHAT YOU NEED. NO NAMES.

A man in a work jacket stands at the corner of the building with his hands in his pockets. When a car slows and doesn’t stop he tells the driver she can just open it. She asks whether she has to sign in anywhere. He says no. He doesn’t work here and nobody put him on that corner. He took a bag out of that fridge in February, and a woman he’d never met told him the same thing from the same spot.

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” The word goes out, and the next one to say it is whoever just heard it. Hearing it is enough to be one of the ones saying it.

Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. The thirsty walk up and take it themselves, with their own hands, and the water is free to every one of them.

Nobody in that sentence gets checked first. John puts no step between hearing and saying, and none between being thirsty and drinking. I have put a step in both places and called it being careful.

She opens the door and the light comes on. There’s a loaf, three yogurts, and a bag of carrots with the tops still on. She takes the carrots and the bread and leaves the yogurt, and asks him what she’s supposed to do about it. He tells her nothing. Then he tells her which corner to stand on.