Imagine being the subject of town gossip because of your choices. Imagine having to walk to a well carrying a heavy clay jar in the heat of the afternoon because you couldn’t bear the stares if you drew water when the other women of the city were there. Imagine feeling shame, repeated rejection, and loneliness, and knowing that you helped create your own grief.
That’s what life was like for the woman at the well. And while most of us don’t have to go to a city well for water anymore, I’d bet many people still feel loneliness, shame, rejection, and regrets. Even believers in Christ have times like this. Yes, when we receive Him, all things are made new. But a bulk of the New Testament confirms that we still struggle with trials, with temptation, and even with sin. Because we are not in our glorified bodies in Jesus’ presence away from the presence of sin.
Now imagine this lonely woman encountering a stranger, a Jewish man, who not only greets her respectfully but offers her something she could never have imagined – Living water. He offers her an unending resource of love, redemption, compassion, and hope. Jesus offers Himself. And she is changed. So changed, in fact, that she leaves her heavy jar and runs back into the city to share the good news, no longer worrying about gossip and reputation. She had been changed by Jesus, and she wanted everyone to know.
If you have ever been at a well, lonely and ashamed, and you’ve met Jesus, you know that excitement. Too often, though, we worry about what others will think if we share. Will they hold onto the wrong we did? Who do we think we are, serving Jesus after such failings?
We are just like every other person God has redeemed – like David, like Sarah, like Samson, Like Paul, and like Rahab or Naomi. God is in the business of transforming broken people and using them to accomplish His will.
So today, I urge you to leave that heavy water jar behind and celebrate the new creation God has made in you. He doesn’t see your past – He sees His righteousness.
Laurie Nave, Author 