A Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some water to drink.” His disciples had gone into the city to buy him some food.
The Samaritan woman asked, “Why do you, a Jewish man, ask for something to drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (Jews and Samaritans didn’t associate with each other.)
Jesus responded, ” If you recognized God’s gift and who is saying to you, ‘Give me some water to drink,’ you would be asking him and he would give you living water.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, you don’t have a bucket and the well is deep. Where would you get this living water? You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave this well to us, and he drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks from the water that I will give will never be thirsty again. The water that I give will become in those who drink it a spring of water that bubbles up into eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will never be thirsty and will never need to come here to draw water!” ~John 4:7-15 (CEB)
Have you ever been extremely thirsty? If you have experienced deep thirst, you know how wonderful and refreshing cool water can be. We can live for many days without food but we can only live a short time without water. When the Samaritan woman encountered Jesus at Jacob’s well, she was searching for that which would quench her body’s thirst for life-giving and life-sustaining water. In the presence of Jesus she recognized a deeper thirst, the thirst for God. And it was to this thirst that Jesus offered living water and the promise that her thirst for God could be satisfied.
The thirst for God is universal because we have been created with a longing for the Creator. This desire to know and be known by the One who made us and loves is often ignored, denied, and finally buried under a multitude of pursuits and interests. But then some event in life invites or forces us to pause, and the desire for God comes rushing back to our awareness. And once again we know that real life is impossible without the companionship of the One who first gave us the gift of life and who sustains us even how. We know for certain that we need living water; we need what only God can give if we are to really live.
Today Jesus continues to offer living water, a way, and a companionship that can quench our thirst for God. Our part is to recognize the deep need for God to fill and satisfy that need. Like the psalmist, our souls thirst for God. The good news we share is that through Jesus Christ our thirst can be satisfied. ~A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God, Ruben P. Job
Almighty God, you have sent Jesus to take our nature upon himself and to be for us sign and Savior. Grant that by the power of Your Spirit Christ may be born within us today to the end that our ministry may be pleasing to you and helpful to your people. We pray in the name and spirit of Christ. Amen.
Pieces of the Puzzle 