 I suppose Shirley had no luck in love. Certainly, as Mick Jagger croaked, she could get "no satisfaction". She'd had five husbands and a string of other men, and was living with a new partner the day she met the man who would change her life... It was not that her relationships had ever been abusive; her partners were not manipulative - she knew how to stick up for herself! But as each affair had ended, they left an empty feeling inside. Sex had been good, and the money had been helpful, but she needed something more. She wasn't even sure herself what it was, that something which she longed for deep inside her heart. Then she met him. A strange man - a foreigner. On any other day she would have ignored him completely; and no one in her town ever so much as spoke to one of the hated "immigrants". But on this day she couldn't help but notice him. He was different, somehow. Not good looking, you might say, but with a captivating presence. He sat by a deep well at the side of the road, and as she approached, he asked her for a drink of water. Despite herself, she found it easier to spout the usual taunts of racial hatred, but even that could not disguise her curiosity. Just who was this polite foreigner? By his tone and manner, she was sure that he was asking her for something more than a drink. "If you knew the gift of God," said the man, "you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." Shirley felt a little confused, but in no way alarmed by the man. Was he offering her a drink now? He had no bucket to draw from the well, and no bottle in his hand. Just where was this drink he was offering her? "Whoever drinks of this water will be thirsty again," the man continued. "But whoever drinks of the water which I give him will never be thirsty again. For the water I give him shall become in him a spring of living water welling up to everlasting life." Now this was something. A water supply that never ran dry. No more carrying heavy water pots to the well! But piped running water was unknown to those of Shirley's hometown. What could he mean? Shirley knew he had something to offer, and wanted to know more. Where was it leading, all this talk of God and of never being thirsty again? A sudden stab of conscience touched Shirley's heart and made it stand still. "Go and bring your husband," the man had said. It wasn't that Shirley ever regretted her marriage break ups; it was just that she was conscious of her weakness when it came to holding down steady relationships. Just as stolen water always seems sweeter, so iIlicit love is always more exciting. Shirley just blurted out that right now, she didn't have a husband. The man spoke again, "You are right. For you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband." It wasn't just that he knew these details; there was something about the stranger's voice which told Shirley that he had been watching her for all her life long - that he knew everything about her, even the secrets she hid in her heart from her lovers. "But only God knows the thoughts of our hearts," thought Shirley, with some half forgotten memory of her religious upbringing. Clearly, this man was no polite foreigner, but a messenger of God. The man continued to draw Shirley closer to himself - but not physically. Neither of them had changed their position, it was her heart which he seemed to captivate. All the emptiness and pain of her wasted life, a life of failure, was brought into focus, and the stranger was offering to exchange it all for a new beginning - a new life within that would never end. It was clear that he was not offering to satisfy her sensual desires, but to meet the deepest need of her soul. To be forgiven for her sin! That was the offer. To be given another chance! To be right with God, and able to hold her head up high. The offer seemed to good to be true. Only one person could offer her such deep peace and satisfaction. "When the Christ comes," said Shirley, "he will tell us all we need to know about these things." "I who speak to you am he," replied Jesus. Reader, are you dissatisfied with life? Outwardly, all may be well, but is it well with your soul? Do you have peace with God, are your sins forgiven? Do you have the joy and satisfaction of being in a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ? The Lord Jesus died for your sin on the cross, and later rose again from the dead so that you might be forgiven. By accepting Him as your Saviour you will begin a life which will never end. Shirley encountered him at the well of Sychar. You too can encounter him, just where you are today! |
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