Shabbat Chronicles: Volume 8 (1/27/2017)
Written on February 28, 2017.
Well
For the past days, we have had an ill trio of teens. Coughing, sniffling and moans and groans to meet their aches and pains. A melody of misery. Within resides refrain. “I want to be well. Will I ever be well? I don’t remember what it was like to be well.”
Well. A little word that opens a wide gate. In Hebrew, ‘well’ is “a pit, the coming to light and the appearing of possible.” If I was to navigate that from one landmark to another, it would be “a pit that when light pours in, all appears possible.”
And that is how wells spring. It certainly was for the woman at the well. The coming of light found her with a clay jar in hand. Unnamed, but not unarmed. Jesus came unfettered by rules, uninhibited by regulations. He found her and she met him with the long arm of the law. Running from it even as she desperately sought to protect herself with it.
“You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?”
His response was to touch her. Not with hand, but heart. She saw Him with nothing. No way to reach into the recesses. Law pounds like a tool. But love joins. Bone and marrow, spirit and soul. Exactly what she needed, no even close to what she wanted.
He is led by love. We are nudged by need. And in the exchange we discover that our greatest need is love. Our need is where the light comes in. Our holy holes with edges still rough and lines curved towards our rights and reasons. Dusty and desperate for a drink. For a satiating sip of possible.
For if every blade of grass bears His mark, we can certainly trust Him to recognize our dents and dings. He saw those of the shady Samaritan. Places of purpose drawn in pencil, covenant corners with crevices yet to color. A work of art, a meticulous masterpiece, under construction.
He comes with things impossible to know, so we might drink deep of that which makes all things possible.
Jesus. He always shows up to urge us for the everyday to the everlasting. The woman at the well wanted what He was offering, but just so she could shun her daily scoop and scrape water. Eager to have a physical want erased, she nearly ran right past having her greatest need met and married. We can do the same. Loitering for our lust instead of lingering for love.
‘Well’ has another amazing meaning. “Willing”. When this word leaves the lips of our Savior, it forms and fashions into a question. “Are you willing? To be well? To be a well?” “Will you let me come with light so you can fulfill ever possibility?
Spring up oh wells!! Numbers 21:17
Chronicles:
Journal a time that Jesus came with light and asked you to be willing to be well. To be filled and found in the pierce and pulse of possibility.
Tabletop:
Jesus encouraged the woman to try something new, to be new. Ask each of those at your table the following.
When we the last time you tried something new?
How did you become "new” in the journey?
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