Jesus walking in the hot sun at midday stopped by a well to rest. His disciples went to a nearby village to find food. A woman came to the well to get water. Avoiding the other women, she came at the hottest part of the day when few others were at the well. This woman had a difficult past and was living with a man she wasn’t married to. But Jesus looked past her actions and who others saw her to be. He cared about her. He told her, “I AM the Messiah.” He knew how others identified her (married five times and living with a man), so she didn’t have to try to hide that part of her identity from Him. He knew, and He still sought her out. Jesus heard her arguments, the defenses she put up to keep Him from her heart, but He broke through these to speak to her. He gave her the opportunity to know Him, to have the living water she so searched for. He was also giving her - a sinful, shamed woman - the opportunity to have the joy in sharing the best news she ever heard with the village she was from. 

What Jesus offered this woman, He offers to us as well. “But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” John 4:14

Place yourself in this story. Jesus is offering you living water, bubbling up. Abundant life. Not a perfect life. Not a pain-free life. Not problem-free but abundant. And abundant life can be had in a dry wilderness when you are tired and weary. Abundant life comes from within, not from our circumstances or environment. It is living water that keeps you hydrated when your situation is thirsty and threatens to drain you dry. Picture yourself there at that well, across from Jesus. He offers you life, once again, today. 

Are you thirsty today? Do you have a fresh spring of life flowing in you? The woman went to the well for her daily source of life (water). Jesus offered her something more, a source of life that will never run out. He offers it to you as well. Maybe you have already tasted of this spring but you have started to feel like you are running dry. Be refreshed! Be restored in His presence. Go to Him with all your desires and needs.

I am thirsty but I don’t have to be. I choose to drink from my everlasting source today. I don’t have the strength, but He will provide it. I am weary and exhausted, but I look up from my surroundings, and I remember. I remember He offers me life, abundant life, to make it through today and to live fully in this moment.