Ex 17:3-7
Rm. 5:1-2, 5-8
Jn. 4:5-42

Bearing Life Giving Water
I always feel somewhat sorry for the woman at the well when the story starts to unfold. The first part of the gospel story is my worst fear. Imagine there you are all by yourself and all of a sudden everywhere around you turns dark except for this brilliant light that forms a four foot radius around you. In the midst of that four foot radius steps forward a person who can read not only your thoughts, but also your history!

Even thinking about that imagined story I can feel my stomach tightened up as I think about the stories that only a few know. I think about how much prayer and time it has taken to bring healing to those memories. This story of Jesus meeting the woman at the well holds these types of exchanges. As the conversation unfolds it is clear that Jesus, somehow, knows the whole picture…the whole picture!

This woman has the courage to stay in the conversation with Jesus. Jesus seeing the whole of this woman calls out in her that deep desire to know a fullness that cannot be satisfied by the old ways. She is thirsting for a well that cannot go dry and she finds in Jesus living water. She encounters a person who knows her history as well as her potential and instead of falling down in shame, she steps forward in hope.

Let us be encouraged and embolden by the woman at the well. Let us listen to the one who knows and loves the whole of us and calls us to bear the news of Living Water.