The Junk Drawer of Life: I am the Samaritan Woman

Growing up we had a junk drawer in the kitchen. Much to my husband’s dismay, I have continued the tradition.

The junk drawer is full of trinkets and what-nots that I am not yet ready to throw away but there is no other spot in the house in which they could belong. If you glanced over the contents you might pick up a certain piece and wonder why it’s still there. Mixed in among the stuff that I could toss are things that bring a flood of memories. Truth is, you don’t know the back story of sweet pudgy little boy hands that played for hours with that matchbox car or the little girl that needed help putting that shoe on her baby doll. It might look like trash to you, but to me, it is treasure.

Jesus and His disciples were traveling from Judea to Galilee. The Bible states that they had to travel through Samaria. Samaria was the “junk drawer” of the day. Jews would travel the long way around to keep from sharing air space with a Samaritan.

Jesus was exhausted. He sat at Jacob’s well and sent his disciples to buy food. A woman arrived to draw water from the well. Jesus asked for a drink.

Please understand, Samaria was the junk drawer, Samaritan women were unworthy of even taking up space in the junk drawer.

And yet Jesus spoke to her. He asked her for a drink of water.

She was taken aback at first. Men didn’t speak in public to women and most certainly Jews did not speak to Samaritan women.

Basically Jesus told her, “If you knew God…if you knew His gift to you…if you knew who just asked you for a drink of water, you would ask Him and He would give you living water.”

She didn’t understand what He meant by living water.

They continued to converse and Jesus revealed that He knew her and everything about her. He knew her past failures and her present condition. He knew her struggles and her pain. Her knew her guilt and her shame.

And yet Jesus spoke to her.

Imagine with me if you will, a tired woman coming late in the evening...alone…to the well to draw water. She was not only living in the junk drawer, her choices in life had made her an outcast among her own people.

Looking in the distance, she sees there is a man at the well and wonders to herself if he will ridicule her.

Should I turn away and come back later? I cannot, for it is late and I need water.

Maybe she stiffens her back, with a rebellious attitude brought on by her life’s choices, and walks with purpose: He will have to move, I have work to do.

Perhaps she takes a deep breath and moves forward determined: I have done the best I can with my life and this man has no right to judge me.

I see her as lonely and weary: You can do this. Just don’t look at him. Get the water and get back home to the safety of a closed door.

And then He spoke to her.

The story is beautiful as Jesus’ love for her flows freely and He tells her about Living Water. She is thirsty, not from the journey to the well that warm evening. She is thirsty because she has tried to quench her parched life with what seemed right at the time. Husband after husband after husband after husband after husband…

We thirst because we fill our lives with what seems right…

I will be a good person and I will feel good about myself.

I will buy pretty things and surround myself with the security of stuff.

I will eat whatever I please because food tastes good and it makes me happy.

I will please the people around me, because if people are happy with me I am doing something right.

Life has dealt me a raw hand I am going to get what’s mine.

I will believe whatever comforts me today. A moment of peace is better than no peace at all.

As Jesus spoke, her fractured heart began to heal. He offered her living water- healing and peace that is never-ending. Perfect love and acceptance. Forgiveness without a hitch.

I see the tired lines on her old-too-early face begin to soften as she realizes she is in the presence of the Messiah.  Her shoulders, once heavy with the weight of her sins, are slowly rising with relief as Jesus lovingly removes each burden she carried.

She arrived at the well in a hopeless mess of her own doing. She left the well a new woman.

She ran back to Samaria and told the men there about her divine appointment. She said “Come see! Come see! He told me everything I ever did!”

The recounting of what happened that day ends with the men of Samaria saying “We no longer believe because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves  and know that this really is the Savior of the world.”

Jesus stayed for two days before going on to Galilee.

I hope I never forget I am the Samaritan woman.

I hope I never fail to look at all people around me as a treasure.

Jesus came to give you living water.

He truly is the Savior of the world!