Devotion: FL-AWE-D The Woman at the Well

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” John 4:7-15

I’ve always found this story to be a little humorous. The scene is set and Jesus just happens to be sitting on a well, Jacobs well none-the-less, and a woman comes over to draw water. She is just doing an ordinary task, but she is doing it at a time when she knows she can avoid most people. While there she encounters this man. Was she scared of him? Did she wonder what he was up to? Why he wouldn’t be like most men and be working at this time of day? And then he speaks, “Give me a drink.” The nerve of him! I think my gut reaction would have been to tell him to go get his own drink. But she does not close her heart and answers him in a different way, even though she knows he is a Jew. She knows there are rules about these types of conversations and that he is not supposed to be talking to her. And somehow she knows that they are definitely not talking about the same kind of water.

I can’t help but wonder what I would do if I was in her place? Would I stand there and talk to this man? Would I draw him some water? Would I listen to his stories about living water, which honestly sound like rambling to my naïve ears? Would I know that he is Jesus? Or more likely, would I tell him to go get his own water and hurry on my way? I think I am more apt to believe that the rules should be followed and to doubt that miracles are possible. I think I would have missed my chance with my Savior. I would love to believe that if I were that woman at the well I would have known right away who I was talking to and would not have been scared off by his words. But truthfully, how many times do I miss God’s presence throughout my day? I rush through my morning coffee and miss the sunbeam that came in to brighten my day. I miss a friend reaching out because of my own busy schedule. I miss the smell of rain and fresh cut grass. I miss the black squirrel and tiny baby bunnies playing in the yard. I think I miss more God sightings than I catch.

Dear God,
Your Son told the woman who came to the well that, “those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty”. Help us to be like that woman and seek out what can quench our thirst. Open our eyes to what you have placed in our daily lives and all you have given us. Help us to follow Jesus example and open our hearts to let all your children, both Jews and Samaritans, drink the living water.
In your beloved name,
Amen

Written by Julie Anderson