If We Only Knew

She came to draw water in the heat of the noon-day sun like she did every day –– alone. The only steady companion she had was her water pot. She and her water pot had something in common. They were both empty. Every day she would make that walk to Jacob’s well to refill her empty container. The pot would soon be empty again, so back to the well she would go. Physical thirst is constant and it must be satisfied, or there can be grave consequences. This woman’s physical survival was dependent on the well water.

This lady was living with a man who was not her husband. She had five failed marriages before she was in this live-in relationship. She was not going to risk another failed marriage and all the pain that comes with it. That says a lot about what her empty soul was crying out for. She just wanted someone to love her unconditionally, and to be her covenant partner. She tried to fill that empty spot in her soul by going to the marriage-well five times. Why risk a sixth failed marriage: Just live together, because it is a pretty sure bet this one will not work out either. This way the separation will be somewhat easier and the fallout less painful.

Her focus was on getting her physical needs met to the neglect of her spiritual need. The water in the well could only satisfy her physical thirst. Jesus was the only one who could satisfy her spiritual thirst. Jesus told her, “Whoever drinks from this water [well] will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:13––14 NKJV; emphasis added). I love Theodore Isaac Rubin’s quote, “The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem”. The Samaritan woman thought her problem was that she could not find the right soul mate. What she thought was her problem, was not her problem, and that was her problem. It is like changing a tire on your vehicle so it will start, when you actually need to fill the empty gas tank. She was looking for love in all the wrong places.

What this woman was searching for could not be found in Jacob’s well, or in five marriages. The temporary relief she would get from the well would be just that, temporary. Little did she know that what she was looking for, would be found in the Man sitting on the curb of the well on that particular day. The seventh Man would totally transform her life. She found in Him what she had always been looking for. Jesus is the only One who can totally satisfy the longing that is in a person’s innermost being. If We Only Knew.