Once again the cinema's "Beautiful People" were there for Hollywood's annual celebration of itself. It's all about that little gold guy, Oscar. (I hear his name and all I can think of is the slob in the "Odd Couple" or a famous hot dog - I must not be one of the "Beautiful People").
For some reason, the Hollywood news takes me back to a tour our family did at Universal Studios some years ago. The tram took us through some scenes that would be familiar to veteran moviegoers - like a street in 1920s Chicago, an Old West town, a World War II French village.
Impressive stuff. It made you want to go in some of those buildings and check it out. Don't bother. When you open the door, there's nothing there. It's only a set. It looks really good on the outside, but it's empty on the inside.
Sadly, there are a lot of lives like that. The outside looks great - smiles, style, success. Just don't open the door.
Years ago, when I was working with our local high football team, I took one of our star players out to celebrate the championship he helped win. I said, "Man, what a year, huh?" He said, "Yeah. When I was a junior, I knew what I wanted from my senior year. A championship, a scholarship, and lots of friends. And I got 'em all."
That's when his eyes welled up with tears. When I asked him what was wrong, he said, "I got everything I wanted. Then why am I so empty?" It's a question that lurks behind the "set" in many hearts.
The woman Jesus met at a well one day was one of them. As her story unfolds, we learn that she had a lot of men in her life. We can guess she was pretty attractive and even pursued. She came to that well to draw water. Jesus said, "Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again."
Thirsty again. That's always the problem with every "well" we go to for satisfaction - we inevitably end up "thirsty again." For this woman, every relationship had been a well that left her empty inside. Then Jesus said, "Every one who drinks of the water I give him will have in him a well springing up to everlasting life" (John 4:13). That day, that woman traded neverlasting for everlasting.
Jesus is still making that offer to all of us thirsty people today. Because the hole in my heart is so big that only God can fill it. By going to a cross to pay for our sins, Jesus removed the wall between me and the God whose love I was made for.
And life with Him is more than a hollow set. There's life inside.