The perfect love stories always began at the well…
That’s where almost everyone found their first love.
Well, except for me, of course.
I did have a “first love”,
And then I had 2.
And then, 3.
And then 4...
And let’s just say, I had a lot.
My “love stories” never ended with a happily ever after.
The well is where I, and many other women, went to draw water. A meeting spot.
Future bridegrooms would come from out of state, stop at a well, where they would meet a beautiful woman, and the rest is history.
In my day, finding your true love at a well was equivalent to a Prince awakening a comatose princess with his kiss, it was just bound to happen.
But you see, with these women that came before me, their love stories were not as complex as mine.
Take for example Jacob. A great man. I know him pretty well.
Jacob met his wife Rachel at a well.
And it was love at first sight.
But you see, Rachel was perfect, nothing like I am.
In fact, she was so perfect, that Jacob worked 14 years for her.
He worked 14 years just to have her as his wife.
14 years. Yet, I can’t even keep a man for 14 minutes...not until they hear about my past.
And let’s take Isaac, for example. Jacob’s father.
His father, Abraham, sent his servant Eliezer to go and find a suitable wife for his son, Isaac.
And although Isaac was not physically there, Eliezer still found Rebekah at the well.
You see, Rebekah, she too, was perfect.
I was told growing up that Rebekah was a damsel, a very beautiful woman to look at. And she was a virgin! No man had known her.
Unfortunately for me, that was not my case.
Many men knew me, and it was because I allowed them to. The truth is, I worshipped the pleasure.
Blindly, I gave myself to different men, thinking it was finally my first love.
Only to be left hurt at the end.
Let us even come further into time with Moses. Egypt’s finest.
After fleeing from Egypt to Midian to escape from Pharaoh, he too arrived at a well where he met Zipporah, a damsel in distress. Zipporah and her sisters were being harassed at a well by crooked shepherds until Moses stepped in and intervened. Not that Zipporah really needed Moses to help her, because you see, that’s what made her perfect: she was strong and independent. She could’ve lived without a man for another year if she wanted. Unlike me, I can’t be without a man for another day.
But alas, Moses married Zipporah and they were beautiful.
They all had great love stories at the well.
These women who came before me, they had it all together. At least, it seemed like it.
Not only were they perfect, but they found even more perfect men as their husbands.
I, too, longed for that kind of love story, but instead I ended up with 5 heartbreaks and the man who I am currently with, not even being my husband!
I had ruined myself.
There was no way I would find my first love at the well like the women who came before me, there was no way I would find that one perfect man whom my soul loves.
That man who will not care about my past, who will find me beautiful, who will defend and protect me, that man who will look at me with all of my past mistakes and my heartbreak and still think I am worth it.
I would never find that man.
That’s what I thought, until I met Him.
His name is Jesus.
He is a Jew, which threw me off because I am a Samaritan woman.
The Jews despised us and us Samaritans, we had no care for them as well.
But this man didn’t seem to care..
See, what I did not realize was that I had a date with this man, a divine appointment, except, I didn’t realize it until after our meeting.
He was sitting at the well, the well that belonged to our Father Jacob in Sychar. And although He was exhausted, it was as if He was waiting for me…
After asking for me to give Him water to drink, He started speaking of Living Water. Can you imagine?!
He told me that whoever drinks from this well will be thirsty again, but the water that He will give me will become in me a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.
No liquid can forever satisfy my physical thirst, but Jesus quenched my spiritual thirst and He can do the same for all who repent, obey His lordship, and thereby drink of Him (John 4:13–14). I was finally satisfied when grace found me, and I became an integral witness to the fact that Jesus really is the Savior of the world.
Unlike the women before me, I may not have left with an engagement ring, but my encounter with Jesus was an engagement.
I was in search of a lover of my soul to love me, but instead, THE lover of my soul, Who I now worship, found ME. He knew ME, He saw ME, and still thought I was worth it...
I worshipped pleasure, but now I worship in truth and in Spirit.
I worship The One who saw past my sin and impurity...my guilt and pain.
I wanted a love story at the well like the women before me.
But I was missing the key ingredient to that love story: this man Jesus.
I finally found The One Whom my soul loves.
I found the lover of my soul.
My great defender. The Messiah. The One Who is truly perfect.
I finally found my first love.
John 4