Don't Believe Your EyesSample

I was ten years old when my family moved from our home in Louisiana to a new city. I quickly realized that making friends was difficult. I began to experience loneliness and sadness as I had never experienced before. The next few years were filled with difficult times: I was bullied, made fun of, teased, tricked, and beat up by bigger, more popular kids. I felt the pain of not fitting in. 

The woman at the well in John 4 could relate. She probably felt her whole life was like a jar with cracks in the sides. She’d keep trying new things to fill herself up, to feel whole, but the water would always spill out. Nothing ever seemed to stick. No number of relationships could fill that void. No number of trips to the well could keep her topped off. 

When Jesus met the woman at the well, His answers to her questions might have seemed strange at first. She heard about water that will make you never be thirsty again and she immediately thought of the jar she was holding in her hand. But Jesus was directing her to something bigger than that. He used her physical need for water as an illustration of a bigger need. A spiritual one. She was trying to quench her spiritual thirst with liquid water. 

What I find beautiful about this story is what happens after the woman encountered Jesus. In verse 28, she leaves her water jar behind, goes back to the city, and tells everyone about the man she just met. They all come to see Jesus and many become followers of the Savior of the world.

He offers the same thing to us that He offered to her: living water, more powerful than the brokenness we feel, more potent than the empty things we try to fill ourselves up with. There is no brokenness that Jesus is not equipped to handle.