Preparing to Meet JesusSample

Come to the Well

Where can God the Father find a Bride for His Son? The answer can be found in a beautiful Old Testament story. Genesis 24 tells of Abraham whose son Isaac would one day inherit the unique promises, blessings, and covenant relationship with God. Abraham knew it was of preeminent importance that his son would have a godly wife. But Abraham and Isaac lived in the land of the Canaanites, a wicked people given over to obscene, pornographic behavior. Where could a godly woman be found for Isaac to marry?

The first criterion was that the bride be a member of the father’s own family—a family that lived hundreds of miles away. Since Abraham was too old for such a long journey, he called for a servant to go for him.

After long travels through desert wasteland, the servant arrived in the city of Nahor, a suburb of Haran. He went to the city well and had his camels kneel down. He knew there was no better place to find the woman he was seeking than where women gathered each evening to draw water for their households.

The Bible describes many divine meetings that took place at a well, such as when the Lord met Hagar when she was running from Abraham’s wife, Sarah. Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, met the love of his life, Rachel, at a well. While fleeing Pharaoh, Moses sat down at a well where he met his future wife. Gideon heard from God at a well before conquering the invading enemy.

But perhaps the most meaningful of these events took place at Jacob’s well in Samaria, where a travel-weary Jesus encountered a woman who had come to draw water. He asked her for a drink. In the resulting conversation, Jesus explained that physical water does not satisfy the thirst of the soul, but anyone who drank the water He offered would never thirst again. He said, “the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). The woman’s life was radically changed, as well as that of her entire town, because of her testimony.

Life-changing well encounters still occur today. The Father is looking for a member of His Family to be the Bride of His Son. Will the Father’s Servant, the Holy Spirit, find you at the well?

What, or where, is your “well?” Describe the place where you encounter God.