I’m part of a writer’s group on Slack and someone had a great idea to share “writing challenges.” Each challenge has a theme with a specific word count and the genre of writing can be whatever you want. This challenge was the theme “John 4:11” and the word count was 200 (Brutal!). Here was my entry.
“The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?’” – John 4:11
Her question was sincere and desperate. She had been confronted with her sin, sin that left her ostracized by her community, sitting alone at a well at noon, talking with a Stranger making strange claims. Living water? How strange.
But this Stranger reminded her of something, something that she had felt weak sensations of when she gave herself to the sin that He somehow knew about. These weak sensations kept her going back to that dreadful habit, but now here stood the very Thing she felt—and she felt that sensation so strongly from Him.
So she wondered: Could He be what she had been chasing all this time? All of her attempts to obtain it produced death, but He was promising life: thirst-quenching, sin-quelling sustenance. She couldn’t get it herself, the well was too deep, and every descent left her unfulfilled. But here He was, this Stranger, promising to provide everything she wanted.
She didn’t know it, yet, but this Stranger would plumb the depths Himself, one day. For her. For you. For us. He would then arise with this living water, freely available to all who admit their thirst and simply request just a small taste.
Photo by Jong Marshes on Unsplash