We have a great story to read today! 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Jesus grabs my attention. He notices people! People matter to Him that seem to have fallen through the cracks of mattering much to anyone else! This is good news for me! When I am sensing my insignificance I can be confident that I am not insignificant to Him - and His opinion matters most!
There is something more for me here though! I think Jesus is talking more deeply to me about the topic of "honoring" or "pouring value into others" which we spoke of this past Sunday! I am caught in this moment by His first words, "Will you give me a drink?"! Jesus pours significance into this "untouchable" lady (Samaritan, multiple marriages, sexually promiscuous) by noticing her and ...... asking her to do something for Him. "Give me a drink?" When He did that He noticed her and trusted her at the same time... she could do something for Him. This builds value in a person - a sense of self worth.
As I think about it the application is rich for family life. We get to notice people... even the ones we see everyday ... perhaps those we do life with regularly and really don't notice. We get to also ask them to help us. We get to trust someone else with our need. I think of all the things I did when my kids were young that I should have asked them to help me with but I ended up doing it myself. It usually took more time, was a little messier when I asked the kids to help but was probably better for them. It took more time for Jesus to ask for a drink from the woman and certainly turned out to be messier........ but then the drink was never what the encounter was about at all... was it?
Jesus honoring the women by "noticing" her and "needing help" from her opened up a life giving encounter for her!
Wow! Something to think about!
delton
