I have no bucket and the well is deep

I have no bucket, and the well is deep. Brian Arthur Wren* (1936- ). Written in September 1984 and published in Wren’s Praising a Mystery (1986). It is based on John 4: 11, using the words of the woman of Samaria as a metaphor for the soul in search of God. As such it appears appropriately as the first hymn, ‘Seeking’, in Piece Together Praise, sub-titled ‘A Theological Journey’ (1996). There Wren describes it as ‘a personal reflection, dealing with recovered childhood memory’, noting that ‘the second stanza is indebted to The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula LeGuin’. In addition to John 4: 11-15, he gives as Biblical references Numbers 20: 9-11 and John 7: 37-38. The ‘personal reflection’ element...