Woman at the Well

John 4 describes the story of the woman at the well.

While traveling from Jerusalem to Galilee, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and his disciples walked through Samaria. Jesus sat by Jacob's Well, exhausted and thirsty, while his disciples went to Sychar to get food. During the hottest part of the day, a Samaritan woman came to the well to get water.

Jesus then broke three Jewish customs. First, He spoke to a woman. Second, the Jews traditionally despised the Samaritans. Third, her getting Him a drink of water would have made Him ceremonially unclean. The woman was shocked by all of this.

Then Jesus said that He could give her "living water" so that she would never thirst again. By this He meant eternal life, which confised the woman at first, but as they talked more about their beliefs, she voiced her faith that the Messiah would soon be coming. Jesus said, "I who speak to you am he." (John 4:26) The woman now understood her encounter with Jesus. She left her water jar and returned to town. Many Samaritans soon arrived and asked Jesus to remain with them. Jesus stayed and spoke to them about The Word of God.

How often do we look upon others and believe that we understand them from their outer appearance? How often do we think that we know the whole picture from the outside? Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ sees through this outer layer. Similar to seeing through the woman at the well, He continues to look with penetrating eyes into our hearts, into our souls, and knows what we are truly made of. The inner self can only hide from so long from the all knowing power of God.