The story of the woman at the well encountering Jesus has always held such significant meaning for me. Recently, it has come to mean so much more.

I must go get water for my homestead. It is so hot today...so unbearably hot...yet, I must go. Without water we will certainly die. The children will die. The livestock will die. I will die. So...I pick up my jars and I set my feet on the path towards the well where we can usually get water. Nothing is certain here...sometimes the water holes run dry...sometimes the hand pump is in need of repair. Most days I have to withstand the looks and comments from the others...they look at me as though I am tainted, stained...dirty. Many days I, too, look at myself in that way. I have made bad choices. I have opened my life and my bedroom to too many... I have given away too much of myself. Maybe they know something I don't. Maybe I am what they say I am...dirty, worthless, beyond hope...Yet, the need remains. We must have water. We need water to live. So I set my attention on the prize ahead...soon my task will be completed and my jars will be full so that I can turn around and return home to find some shade. What? Who? Who is this man sitting near the watering hole? I have never seen him before...he is not from around here...I wasn't expecting this...

How often does this happen to me? In the heat of the day, when I am most aware of my shortcomings and failings, does the Lord of life appear before me? Even in the stretching and difficulty of every day tasks, He has a way of meeting us at there: at our most vulnerable. When we begin to think we are avoiding the unavoidable. When we begin to think we can bypass taking responsibility for our past. When it seems we have outrun and outsmarted the consequences of our foolish decisions...there HE is.

What I have come to understand is that He is always waiting for us at the end of our selves. He always has open arms to receive more of the 'stuff' we choose to unload upon Him. When we think we have run around in enough circles and with enough cleverness to have confused Him...we are reminded...He knows us better than we know ourselves. He is never surprised at the junk that is exposed after we have tried so hard to disguise it. The heat of the day is never too much for Him to show up. Actually...it seems, that is when He does His best work!

There. He. Is.

And here I am....

Just where He wants me...