“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ ”
— John 14:6
Living Water for the Samaritan Woman
There was a woman who lived in Sychar, a small village in Samaria. Because she needed water, this Samaritan woman trekked to Jacob’s well. People usually drew water at the end of the day. But not her. She carried her jar to the well around noon, probably because she wanted to avoid the stares and gossip of other women.
Still, when she arrived at the well, she wasn’t alone. Jesus was resting on the ground nearby while his disciples went into town to get food. The woman noticed that he was a Jew. In those days Jews and Samaritans did not get along.
“Will you give me a drink?” Jesus asked.
“You’re a Jew and I’m a Samaritan woman,” she said. “How can you ask me for a drink?”
“If you knew the gift of God and who asks you for a drink,” Jesus said, “you would’ve asked him and he would’ve given you living water.”
“Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?”
Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. The water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Jesus wasn’t talking about plain old well water. He was talking about salvation and eternal life with God. Jesus was the living water. He was the only one who could satisfy the deep thirst in the Samaritan woman’s soul.
“Sir,” she said, “give me this water so I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Then Jesus revealed that he knew all about her life — that she had had five husbands, and the man she was then living with was not her husband. He told her that he was the Messiah.
Jesus knew the Samaritan woman needed more than just water from the well that day. He knew she needed forgiveness for her sins. And he knew she needed to know that God loved her that much.
God knows your needs too, even before you do. And he doesn’t decide your importance because of your color, your ethnic background, the money in your piggy bank, how often you attend church, or the good things you do. He looks into your heart. And like the Samaritan woman at the well, if you put your faith in Jesus, your thirst will be quenched by living water.
More To Explore: John 4:1 – 42
Girl Talk: How do you think the Samaritan woman felt when Jesus chose her to carry the news that he was the Messiah back to her town?
God Talk: “Jesus, thank you for your living water. Thank you that you died so that I can have eternal life. Amen.”
From Real Girls of the Bible by Mona Hodgson