The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” He said to her, “Go call your husband and come back here.” The woman replied, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “Right you are when you said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the man you are living with now is not your husband. This you said truthfully!”…Then the woman left her water jar, went off into the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Surely he can’t be the Messiah, can he?” So they left the town and began coming to him.
-John 4v15-18, 28-30
The story of the woman at the well has always been one of my favorites. While reading through it there are two things that strike me. The first is that Jesus knows exactly who the woman is when he approaches her. He knows her past and her present. He knows details about her that she never speaks out loud. He knows her sin, and yet He still desires a relationship with her. He engages with her, and invites her into His story. How encouraging is that? No matter where we are coming from, or what we have done or said whether it was 15 years ago or last night, God knows everything, and despite that He still wants to be in relationship with us and still loves us. There have been times I have shied away from a conversation with someone because of their past, but I am so thankful that is not the case with God, and pray that would not be my heart.
The second thing is that the woman “left her water jar, went off into the town and said to the people, ‘Come…’” (4v28). The whole purpose of the lady going to the well was to get water, however after encountering the Messiah, her water jar was no longer priority. In engaging the woman and meeting her where she was Jesus gave her a story to tell of what He had done in her life. I know there are times when God shows up in my life in big ways, and maybe I’ll tell a close friend or another believer, but always get a little uncomfortable telling someone who is not a Christian. Or there are times I recognize that God is doing something in my life, but get distracted by our every day things, like fill our water jar. But, when Jesus meets us where we are and does a miracle in our lives, we ought to be dropping everything to go tell everyone we encounter, and invite them to come and meet the Jesus we have met.
-Carlee Anglin
Sixty-six books in a year 