I was a lover girl, a hot romantic, all I wanted was love and someone who would treat me right, I wanted that hold that melts the heart, that look that calls my name, that forehead kiss that makes me special, one who would adorn my bare body with the kisses of his lips and never get tired, his hugs would be warmer than a mug of hot chocolate in the morning of a winter, I just wanted that man that wants all of me and nothing of anyone else,
Is this too much for a woman in her 40’s to ask? What goes the saying again?
“Life begins at 40.”
So, No!
it is not too much to ask….
At this age I didn’t want just companionship, I want that one that makes all things beautiful at his appearance, That one that walks into the room and all my worries vanishes, I craved it, I wanted it, I envisaged it and it is why I am in my sixth relationship, living in same space with the one who said he loved me, all he did could not give me that satisfaction I craved, yet I lived with him.
Do not get me wrong, Isaiah is a good man, I mean he caters for my material needs,
He is a gentle man and tries to be the best at everything, his best is what he thinks he gives me, but do you understand what I mean? This craving I have. This void that fills my soul? Do you know it?
I don’t know how to explain it.
People may ask why I am with Isaiah, I actually don’t mind being taken care of by a man, any man at all until a Prince who will make all things new comes, I could have been with any man at all while I await his coming, so That’s why I am with Isaiah, you can read it to mean that I am scared of being a lone or is it just this craving that has driven me into his hands? Whatever!
I lived in this community where many do not understand this, they have always seen me to be a hot dog searching for a non-existing mate but I do not care for their thoughts at all, else how would I have had five husbands, and with my sixth who I am co-habiting with, a man whom I am yet to understand yet doing all a wife does for him?
I really do not care for the way I was spat at, looked at, avoided or treated less by the community; I did not care what anyone had to say…
I was an outcast and I wore it like a badge, if there was any award for “The Most talked About” it was me and the crown sat perfectly on my head. you need to understand that in this town, if you move like I do, you are basically a whore.
I needed something, I knew it in my bones, more like I kept seeking for something in each person I got married to, and that thing, Lord knows, is still lacking in this one.
It was a sunny afternoon that Wednesday, and my routine chore was fetching water in the out sketch of the city, this also helps me in escaping the reality of my life so going to Sychar was also a therapeutic process for me.
And that was where my life changed.
I met Him there……. He looked tired as though he walked all the way here, that would be a very long walk, as he sat by the edge of Jacob’s well.
“Will you give me a drink of water?’ He asked nicely as I drew water out of the well,
I raised my head up as I took a good look at Him.
Uhm, how didn’t He realize I was Samaritan? He was clearly a Jew, He cannot be talking to me, I thought to myself and without an answer I continued what I was doing,
Seeing I ignored him, he spoke again “if you knew whom I was, you would not ignore me, you would instead ask me for a drink of living water, that you would drink and never thirst again.”
He sounded like an interesting person as he spoke, I can imagine drinking this water so I may never have the need to return to this well, when I get this water, everyone around me would drink of it and never thirst again, I muttered to myself, as I thought about it, I looked around to see his buckets or the pulley but he came with none, how then was he to offer me a better water than Jacob who dug the well?
As if he read my thoughts, he replied.
“Anyone who drinks from this well will thirst again, but those who drink the water I give them will never thirst again, it becomes a bubbling spring within them.”
There was something about Him, his mannerism and the way He spoke those words was amazing to hear, I felt peace within me, joy filled my soul at the mare thought of the living water and I was so elated, the warmth of his presence engulfed me, and I felt seen for the first time, so I, too, can be looked at and talked to? I felt seen, he wasn’t talking to me out of irritation as many would.
“Please sir, give me this water” I finally summoned the courage to answer him.
He smiled and said, “Go and call your husband first.”
I laughed within; this man obviously did not know about Isaiah, neither did he know whom he was talking to.
“I have none” I replied shyly.
“that’s correct, you have married and gotten divorced five times and you are not married to the sixth whom you live with.”
My face turned red in both embarrassment and conviction, so this man obviously knows whom I was, did my heart not burn within as he spoke, only a prophet can speak in this manner.
“You are a prophet!” I declared.
And at that moment, we started to talk and I felt lifted, my shame was gone, every barrier broken, I felt the void fill, satisfaction overwhelmed me and indeed I could testify he was someone special, I started to talk to him about the messiah who was promised in the scriptures and by prophet John who I heard baptizing people, nothing ever felt as vivid as when He said
“I, the one speaking to you, is He.”
I knew it!
I knew there must be something about this Man and then it clicked, everything I had been seeking, every longing, this was it, this was the answer, He, the Messiah is.
And like a woman with butterflies in her tummy, my excitement was all over the place, I didn’t even realize when I knocked my jar off as I ran into my community,
“Come see the man who told me everything I ever did!”
I ran along telling people as much as I could, like a child who met her first love, my heart swelling from happiness, I scream with my lungs out.
“Everyone, come see! Come and hear of this good news!”
Nothing completed my joy more knowing that as tired as He (the Messiah) was, He came to that well to find me and give me fulfillment, he sat there waiting on me, waiting to fill my hunger, to satisfy that longing my soul ever craved, to quench my thirst with the living water.
And this is the Good News, the Gospel in its entirety, that Jesus is real, that he once lived upon the earth and would quench every thirst and that everyone who seeks him, will find him, and he will give the living water to them who asks, and that everyone who hungers after righteousness he would satisfy.
This is our Salvation. My God, your God, Our God, that through the Son, we have become Sons. Redeemed, Sanctified, fulfilled and united.
God be praised forever!
Yes and Amen!
Hallelujah!!