Like the women at the well, I was living a double life. I was in denial about my addiction to drugs and what it was doing to me. No wonder the Samaritan woman came to the well at that particular time of the day. She knew all the other women would have come and retrieved their water already; she would not have to face anyone that would disapprove of her life style. I am sure the guilt and shame of how she was living was a lot to bare, to a point of feeling "no way out".
Like most women who have lived their life on the streets, have a past. My mother used to tell me “A man could lie in dirt and get up and brush his self off, and no one would care, but if a woman lay down in dirt, she could never brush the dirt off enough, people would notice". When your children have been place in foster care, because of your drug use (unfit mother) or you’re incarcerated for loitering and soliciting charges (criminal). To be labeled and judged all your life, because of your mistakes or because of how you have preceded to live your life, I suppose Jesus knew this of our Samaritan friend, when he a Jew, asked her and Samaritan for a drink.
This was undoubtedly a good way to catch her off guard and indulged her in a debated of true worship, which led to one of the most powerful conversations in biblical history! The very thought of a Jew asking a Samaritan for anything, and a woman at that.
There was nothing that Jesus did by coincidence, his three years of teaching and healing was mapped out from his birth. The woman of the well was part of his plan. Can you imagine never needing a drink of water again? Her mind was full of amaze, "where is this water?". She would not have to carry her water jar back and forth form the village any more (Which probably was about a mile or so a way from were she lived).
The one circumstance that keeps us down is the very one we have the most difficult of letting go. Jesus asked the woman to get her husband, knowing her circumstance. A situation in which she struggled with daily, but because of her past and her guilt, she was stuck. Being a woman familiar with the presence of men, I am sure her sensuality kicked in, but He was different He knew her somehow, she was very cautious not to over step her boundaries as a Samaritan woman. After all, she was in the presence of a teacher, she could tell by his attire. Now it was not just about the water, it was about her and this man who knew about the inner pain she tried so desperately to hide, by sleeping with different man. Her thirst was enormous now, Jesus had touched her heart. The water that I offer you will stop you from sleeping around and help you love your self again.
Because of her circumstances in her life, she was a perfect candidate to go tell the others of whom she had met at the well that day. I am the women at the well. Having been through my circumstances has helped me to embrace the gift God has given me. To help women to overcome those emergencies, that may arise in her life, and to understand what God has in store for them. The woman at the well became the very first woman Evangelist, a woman with a past..who better? Someone that has nothing to lose, because they have already lost it. "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.” John 4:14
You are not alone..many of us who have lived a horrible life..tend to hold on to the quilt. The enemy wants us to believe, that we're not worthy. Imagine the glow this women must've had after returning from the well. The people in that town had to see the difference in her, the way see spoke and the weight that she carried seemed lifted!! They believed! By Jesus speaking to this woman, is telling
us..our past is not who we are...but it can create a powerful tool for Christ. It's how we over come our past..and what we do with the battle experience. With God on my side I have battled many wars..I would not be here, if not for His Grace and Mercy! Like the woman at the well, we have a testimony....now go tell it!!!!
