Drops of Heaven
As I watch the news of racial injustice and attacks on Asians, I am heartbroken. Jesus' last prayer on earth was the unification of mankind. My prayer for this world is peace, kindness, and acceptance of one another. The differences in each one of us are what makes us special. Read how Christ encounters a “perceived enemy” and immediately becomes her friend and Messiah. “What a friend we have in Jesus.”
Enjoy this brief excerpt from Sharing Stories of Jesus with Children as well as my reflection and scripture reference.
Thirsty
Bucket is dropped
deep in the well.
Water is drawn
a story to tell.
Samaritan woman
stranger to most
just met Jesus
unexpected host.
Strange Jewish man
who knows her name
treats her with love
never be the same.
He spoke of the water
living spirit, a sip
she never will thirst
once it touches her lip.
He is our well
of which we can drink.
Thirst for the one
who knows how we think
If you enjoyed this poem click on the books link within this website for easy access to purchasing Sharing Stories of Jesus with Children. God Bless You.
Reflection:
Jesus approached Jacob’s well, met a Samaritan woman and asked her for a drink. Sounds like an ordinary encounter but it was just the opposite. The Jews and Samaritans were bitter enemies and never associated with one another. The Jews did not recognize Samaritans as true Israelites.
Secondly, Jesus was holding a conversation alone with a woman. Jewish men were not allowed public contact with women. Additionally, Jewish rabbis considered the Samaritan women unclean. You can see why she was surprised at Jesus’ kindness. Not only did he speak to her, but he also knew she had been married five times.
Although these points are extraordinary, the most amazing detail is that Jesus revealed himself to her as the Messiah. This revelation did not take place among respected rabbis or the Jewish elite rather, it happened with a Samaritan woman who was considered immoral having had multiple marriages. She was offered the living water which brought eternal life.
The exchange between Jesus and the Samaritan woman tells me that Christ desires a personal relationship with you and me no matter our sins, past choices, or current circumstances. He loves us and wants to be with us for all eternity. “What a friend we have in Jesus.”
John 4:4-26
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”