It Was There

It was there that I met Him.

He found me at the place where every day I was reminded of what humiliation and shame were.  At the well where I drew water, always by myself, was a Man. It was almost as if He were waiting for me there, with such a calm patience that my self-pity dried up like desert dust.

He asked for a drink and I cringed. I expected the familiar, the usual insult and the accusing stare. Or perhaps He was there to be added to my list, to become just another man in my line-up.

One look into His eyes told a different story. In those dark eyes I saw something I’d never seen before. It went beyond looking at what I had done, or worse, who I had allowed myself to become. Oh, He saw my broken past, my filthy heart, my sin-sick hopelessness. But He did not see a shamed woman, scorned by her people and stained with mistakes. He didn’t see a Samaritan to be despised and looked down upon. No, in His eyes, with the loving out-look of a Father, He saw a being formed with His own hands, a soul who had chosen to sin against Him. And He knew  – all of it. Such naked shame before God I felt, all because of this nameless Man sitting at the well.  Though my heart was laid bare, exposed, there was a promise in His mannerism. It seemed that He named my disease because He also knew the cure.

Christ, Messiah, the long-awaited and rumored One had stopped on His world-saving journey to speak to me. He sat at this well that had been a source of degradation and embarrassment and promised to a lowly sinner a new start.
 
Tears filled my eyes as He offered me water from the everlasting fountain. My hands shook with fearful remorse over my wickedness and with anticipation of renewal. That water pot, cracked and heavy, fell to the dust as I grasped hold of salvation. This Jesus, who knew every ounce of my filthy life, had the power in Him to not only speak to me, to offer me eternity, but found in Him the power to forgive.

His disciples came then with their whispers and their confused looks, but for once, I did not care. Their questions didn’t sting, their disdain did not hurt. No, for the first time in a long time, a smile spread across a mouth that had spoken so much guile, had deceived so many. For now, my lips would only speak of and praise that precious name – Jesus! What a friend for sinners! Jesus, the lover of my soul!

•  John 4: 1 - 42 •

"Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."