Today's Woman at the Well

Today’s Woman at the Well

She stares out the window remembering a different time when showers were apart of her daily regime. Now they seem like a luxury. She envisions her favorite pair of black high healed shoes-the ones that looked great with that black miniskirt she used to wear to her favorite restaurant. Now she wears flats and eats at McDonald’s. But her personal favorite used to be Saturday mornings when she slept in till noon. Now she wakes up at 6:30 to an infant tugging at her breast.
Small grunting noises emerge from the tiny frame, all bundled up in pink, resting cozy in her arms. “But you’re beautiful,” she whispers, “and 100 percent worth it.” Her baby girl came into this world just two months earlier, and has taught her some new things about the lifestyle of infants; they scream like rock stars, and stay up all night like college students.
“It’s quite different from the days when I screamed like a rock star and stayed up all night as a college student,” she recalls.
“For the longest time I thought I needed to find myself, so I embarked on a journey, searching. I like to call it Tour de Me. And for some of the time I knew who I was, but for most of the time I traveled incognito. I couldn’t even recognize myself. So I found it easier to let people tell me who I was. Many men called me Available. But I know that God saw me as Too Vulnerable. Some men called me Tender, but God saw me as Meek. Those men knew me as Lover, and God, you knew me as Daughter. But I did not know you-yet.
Then one day after my journey had taken me far away, I hid from the scorn of society, but you found me. It was a time when the world accused me, but you loved me. At first I thought you were just another man, but when you struck up a conversation with me that day, I knew you were no mere man, but the Messiah. And I discovered that you were not trying to take something from me, like the others, but instead you wanted to give me something: mercy, grace, forgiveness, and salvation.

I found myself the day I found you, Jesus.

So my journey came to an end, but at the same time, it began.

Now I sit here today, redeemed and restored. I have returned to my first love and found new love in the process-love expressed in the shape of a cross, love expressed in the shape of a golden circle on my finger, and love wrapped in a tiny pink package.”

John 4:6-26
Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime.7 Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Please give me a drink."8 He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.
 9 The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans.* She said to Jesus, "You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?"
 10 Jesus replied, "If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water."
 11 "But sir, you don't have a rope or a bucket," she said, "and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water?12 And besides, do you think you're greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?"
 13 Jesus replied, "Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again.14 But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life."
 15 "Please, sir," the woman said, "give me this water! Then I'll never be thirsty again, and I won't have to come here to get water."
 16 "Go and get your husband," Jesus told her.
 17 "I don't have a husband," the woman replied.
 Jesus said, "You're right! You don't have a husband—18 for you have had five husbands, and you aren't even married to the man you're living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!"
 19 "Sir," the woman said, "you must be a prophet.20 So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim,* where our ancestors worshiped?"
 21 Jesus replied, "Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem.22 You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews.23 But the time is coming—indeed it's here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth."
 25 The woman said, "I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
 26 Then Jesus told her, "I AM the Messiah!"*