A watering place

Rhona Cathcart March 09, 2026 0 0

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John 4:11 (NIV-UK)

11 ‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?

The encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman is sometimes called ‘the woman at the well’. Wells were extremely important places in ancient Israel/Palestine. They were important not just because of the need for water in arid surroundings, but also as gathering places. Scholars often consider it significant that the woman comes to the well on her own. Her solitude is a sign of her social exclusion. 

But reading it this week, and in particular verse 11, I got to thinking, maybe the woman wasn’t just at the well. Maybe, in a way, she also was the well? Full disclosure here, I’ve always loved this Samaritan woman — her wit, her honesty, her resilience, her pragmatism, her passion, her willingness to keep taking a chance on relationships in spite of the cost. 

There is life in her. Life which her neighbours seemingly haven’t bothered to look for. 

But Jesus does bother. There at the meeting place he lowers a kind of bucket of opportunity, openness, understanding, and lets her flow in. 

Yes, I know that Jesus is the living water. He makes that clear. But this doesn’t stop him recognising and nourishing our individual streams and rivulets. 

We are not drowned or submerged in his presence. Connected to the water of life, we flow more freely and fully. 

Prayer:

Lord Jesus

Take the thirst for connection

For community and understanding and meaning

That wells up from deep within us.

Scoop us, lift us, to your side

That our longings and our loves may recognise their source

As you recognise us. 

Amen