A lone figure readjusts the goatskin flung over her shoulder and takes a swipe at the sweat on her brow, all the while moving silently towards a well located on the outskirts of Sychar. Her neighbors sleep under the siesta sun while she travels alone.

She’s never truly alone, however. Shame paid its initial visit after the failure of her first marriage and increased its visits, one marriage after another. Now, five marriages later, shame is her constant companion.

The woman is surprised to find a man, a Hebrew, at the well.

The man asks, “Will you give me a drink?”

Her reply is curt. “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan. How can you ask me for a drink?

This man isn’t like other men she has known. He doesn’t leer at her with lust or look at her with disgust. His words, in fact, offer her mercy and grace. “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

She stands at the well with Jesus.

***
Can you identify with the Samaritan woman described in the fourth chapter of John’s Gospel? Your trip to the grocery store is a bullet point on your list of household chores. You postpone the trip until your neighbors leave for work, because you can’t handle one more question about your husband’s unemployment, daughter’s divorce or grandson’s arrest.

You grab your grocery list and head out of the door, unaware there’s an appointment scheduled for you on the LORD’s calendar, an appointment for you to meet Him at the well.

The LORD creatively chooses a sundry of places, times, and circumstances to meet you. He transcends everything, from your busy schedule to the hardened areas of your heart. He soothes your wounds and refreshes you with Living Water, and for the first time in what seems like an incredibly long time, you experience indescribable joy.

Many of these blogs are extensions of entries from my Jesus Journal. As these blogs unfold, I humbly pray that you are blessed by profound and poignant encounters with YAHWEH, our covenant and healing God.