If only you knew!

She came to the well, pitcher in hand, all alone, to get some water. She didn’t expect to meet anyone there least of all this Jewish man. She certainly didn’t expect him to ask her for anything let alone a drink of water. How many times had she come here? More times than she cared to remember and as she drew the water she had often thought how pointless the whole this was. Come to the well get some water take it home, drink (or use it for whatever) and then come back for some more. It was almost like a curse. Even more cursed was her loneliness – that aching longing for companionship that ate at her inside and felt like a yawning hole that could never be filled. Like this futile trip to the well, it seemed she was doomed to a fruitless search for fulfillment. After 5 husbands she was still alone. So who was this Jewish man who, with no vessel in hand claimed access to life giving water? What did he know that she didn’t?

As he sat at the well Joshua watched her approach and saw more than anyone else could see. Perhaps even more than she could see. He saw the dry barren loneliness inside that plagued her as she went from marriage to marriage looking for what no man could give her. Five times disappointed, rejected or abandoned and still counting. She was thirsty but couldn’t quench her thirst. With her pitcher in hand she was surprised that he with nothing, offered her a drink. If only she knew.

That was just the problem. Like all the others who had come to Joshua’s well before her, they didn’t and couldn’t know. How could they know how desperately dry and barren their souls were? They had grown so accustomed to the emptiness, they thought it was normal. Still in spite of themselves they went to great lengths to fill the emptiness with everything but water. How could they know how deep the well was? So deep that without the help of the one who owned it no one could drink the living water. How could they know to ask when all their lives they had been taught that they were in control? How could they know how sweet and filling this water was when they were consumed with the pursuit of everything else? If only you knew, he thought, you would have asked me and I would have given you water that would quench your thirst forever.

As he spoke to her and laid her soul bare to her the water flowed in and she was not alone anymore. Could this be the One she had been waiting for? With her heart now filled, as it had never been before she left her pitcher of clay at the well and ran back home with a new song. “Come and see a man who told me every thing I ever did. Could he be the messiah?” Now she knew how thirsty she had been, how impossible it would have been to get this water by herself and how sweet the living water was. And all she had had to do was put down her pitcher, ask for a drink and receive it!