“A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?”…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.””
John 4:7, 9-10
Emma was struggling. Why did she feel so empty? It was hard to put into words. She felt lonely, she felt isolated, although she had friends she felt so alone. People would tell her she was pretty and talented she just didn’t believe it. She just didn’t like herself. What’s wrong with me? She thought.
She had just finished reading about Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well in John 4:1-42. She felt like that woman at the well, alone and unseen. The woman at the well was rejected by her community because of her promiscuity. Although Emma wasn’t sleeping around she felt rejected and used by the men around her.
But Jesus spoke to this woman and made her feel seen. He was really kind and not weird. Jesus wasn’t like the men at her high school. It seems like he cared for her right where she was at. He didn’t sugar coat the truth, but he spoke life into this woman. What would it be like to be loved like that. No agenda, no manipulation.
“But you are loved”, she heard a voice speak.
The thought pierced through her darkness like the sun break through the clouds after a storm. She read again [John 4:13-15 ]
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
She wrote in her journal, “Living water, that’s what I want.”
But what exactly is living water? She wrote the question down her journal and opened up ChatGPT. Then wrote the question in the search window. Within seconds came an answer:
In her journal next to the question she wrote, Life-giving, spiritual nourishment, metaphor for the Holy Spirit.
She read the passage again with that definition in mind and wrote, I need living water from Jesus. I need the Holy Spirit.
She began to jot down ideas as they came to her, Living water is the Holy Spirit. God wants us to filled with the Holy Spirit to the point of overflowing. When we are overflowing with the Spirit of Jesus we don’t feel alone, because we realize he is with us! This next verse caught her attention:
“Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?”” [John 4:27]
Funny, the disciples were “snickering” that Jesus was talking with a woman. It’s not like he was trying to get the digits. It’s not like he was hitting on her. Jesus was honoring her, not seeing her for what she was, a divorced woman, but seeing her to whom she would become. Emma began to think about how Jesus saw her, and who was the woman she would become.
She had learned a long time ago that when you have a question about God, the best thing to do is ask him. She always thought that sounded a little silly, but she put down her pen, bowed her head, and closed her eyes and prayed:
Emma began to cry. She felt the Lord’s presence. She wasn’t alone. She wasn’t isolated. She was deeply loved. She realized she didn’t need the validation of others. She no longer cared about what others thought of her, for she knew she was loved by God, just like the woman at the well.
“Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.”” [John 4:39]
Wow! She changed! She no longer cared what others thought. She went back to the village that rejected her and told them about Jesus. She got it. Jesus had revealed himself to the woman just like he was now himself to her.
