THE STRANGER AT THE WELL

John 4:14 - "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up into eternal life."

During that beautiful day, and in the morning the land was covered  with lilies and wildflowers of spring, and there was a woman in the little town of Sychar that is located in the frontiers of the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim. She really did not expect that  day would revolutionize, not only her life, but that of untold thousands in her town and the whole world as of today. Through its happenings her story would be preserved in the history of religion and mankind, retold, re-emphasized, re-evaluated as traditions says, ended up as the solution for our thirsty and waterless lives. Dubbed as the "Woman at the well" proclaimed the needy in our lives to have the "Water of Life" to quench the spiritual thirst that our lives as been exposed to since the dawn of creation.

Her nature was passionate and intense. Her "physical well" was deep and she had sought to satisfy her heart with human love, but in vain, and she had ceased to believe in love any more. She was labelled as  "damaged goods" and beyond repair. Her character was gone, she was regarded as "Nobody, useless and valueless", even her neighbors, her church would not tolerate her presence at the ancient well. She had no alternative but to carry her pitcher and hurriedly in the heaty and hot noon to quench her thirst and to avoid mingling with the crowd.

She was not destitute of religion. There was the ancient tradition of Jacob's faith, for he had lived within sight of these hills and had drunk of that well. She believed in this ancestral religion, which had existed in its sublime simplicity before the division arose between Jew and Samaritan, and had listened to many discussions as to the rival claims of the temples at Jerusalem and Gerizim.

She also believed that some day the long-looked for Messiah would appear, and explain all things. In the meanwhile, however, she was sick and weary at heart. Her daily lonely visit to the well seemed to epitomize her inner experience. "Give me, Stranger, " she seemed to say, "anything that will appease this thirsty soul, and restore to me the years that the locust and cankerworms of this life have eaten away. Then I shall cease to thirst and come all the way hurriedly to draw! " Is she not the type of thirsty multitudes of lost souls we are? Some among us are shepherds  have drunk all the wells by human creed, filling them with debris, deception, and false promises, and now all we have found is  a deep and empty well with deep depth of despair. "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity," as the wise-man says.

Is it the condition and situation of life with you and me, my friend? Then praise the Lord, it may be, that He (Jesus)  who came far out of His usual way to find and help our distraught and thirsty souls? HE is near to you and me, WAITING TO OPEN THOSE HIDDEN SPRINGS TO QUENCH OUR THIRST FOR YOU AND ME SHALL DRINK FROM, AND WE SHALL NEVER BE THIRSTY AGAIN.

Thank You Lord Jesus,

Taniela Fonua (Lapaifonua)