There is so much in this chapter, and this is only one post, I will not be able to do this chapter justice, but I will add some of my thoughts. Please go check out the others from this week as they have lots of insights, and all are very good writers. (they are on my blogroll under Carl’s blogging Bible study)
The woman at the well has always been one of my favorite stories. Somehow, through my own life I feel like I know her. Many men in her life. A past that shames. Name calling. It is just easier to go out when no one else is there. The empty void inside her that she longs to be filled. What was her life like up to that point of meeting Jesus? I have often thought about her. There are so many things in our lives that cause voids, an emptiness that drives us to try to fill it. Temporarily, (like the many men) the void is filled, yet a small place in it remains empty. Torment. No way to fill it. So life goes on, and she does the best she can, always reminded she has fallen short of her peers expectations. Yes, I think I know her.
Then she meets Jesus, and HE asks her for something… a drink. Reluctantly, she participates in conversation, and HE quickly tells her all that she is hurting from, and the sin that she has been living with up to that point. Imagine how that feels, when suddenly you are bare in front of a stranger, but HE is not condemning, instead HE offers her a way to fill that void, the reason for all her grief, all her sadness, the reason she comes to the well at the hottest time of the day. Just living water. Living water that fills all the voids, leaves no empty place. She has not felt this fullness ever, and delights so much in it, that she runs to tell anyone who will listen…”He told me everything I did”…doesn’t sound like she is carrying any shame anymore. And more came because of what she said. Maybe just to be nosey and see who is this strange person, talking to her. Regardless, they believed, and no longer because of what she said, but because of who HE is.
I seem to need a refill of living water everyday, and sometimes several times a day. It seems that life can just stir those places up that are long forgotten. I am so glad that I have access to the water that is living, that will fill every little crevice, and remind me..”HE told me everything I did”, and knows everything I will do and HIS love doesn’t change..its always intact, and always eager to give me a deep cool drink of living water. “Fill my cup Lord, I lift it up Lord, come and quench this thirsting of my soul…bread of heaven feed me til I want no more, Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole” Drink deep, drink long, fill the void, and when it stirs in you again, come and drink again, it never goes dry, you have not ever had your share, you won’t be cut off..never ending living water.
ponderings of a princess... 