Returning to the Well

Today's reading in The Word Is Out was beautiful. It was exactly what I needed to hear this morning - not sure if it will touch you the same way. But I thought I would share it with you :-) I added the bold to mark the spot that really hit me.

"Many Samaritans from that city believed in Him because of the woman's testimony." (John 4:39)

Jesus "astonished" his disciples by speaking to a woman.

Equally astonishing was that he revealed his messianic identity to her, a woman from the hated people of Samaria. She had been drawing water from a well and ran to tell others of her city, becoming the first Christian evangelist.

In their conversation, Jesus had offered her "living water" that would "become in [her] a spring of water gushing up to eternal life" (John 4:14).

Many of us who experience or proclaim the Good News forget to return to the well. The Gospels provide us with living words from Jesus that quench our spiritual thirst. We may also use them to water the dry places in our lives, transforming the desert into a watered garden.

And we may bring our people back to the well to meet Jesus, as the Samaritan woman did.

Dear Jesus, you call us to serve you, but not without giving us water for the journey.

I read this while listening to one of the hymns I listen to every morning before my meditation. And of course, afterward I heard the hymn differently (in this part of the hymn it is God or Jesus speaking to the singer).

Look at me and hear me
Because I am here
Just for that

I am your moon and your moonlight too
I am your flower garden and your water too
I have come all this way, eager for you
Without shoes or shawl

I want you to laugh
To kill all your worries
To love you
To nourish you

Oh sweet bitterness
I will soothe you and heal you
I will bring you roses
I, too, have been covered with thorns