When I was a lad...
Illustration
When I was a lad my best pal was Jimmy. I thought Jimmy had the smartest grandmother in the whole world. We would go to visit her each summer. She lived on a farm in the hills of Kentucky. Everything one ate at her house came from the farm. The eggs, the sausage, the milk, the biscuits and gravy were all homemade. The cookies she spoiled us with she had made fresh daily. There was something else about her I remember. She seemed to know everything about Jimmy. I suppose it was because she owned the land and she knew what we would do on every inch of it when we were away from the house. We were playful young boys, subject to all the temptations, like going back into the shaft of the coal mine on their hillside. She could tell if we had been there, or if we had gone into the pond which she warned us not to go into.
One day a woman was drawing water from a well. The well could have been in the hills of Kentucky, but it was not. This well was outside of a Samaritan village named Sychar. The woman was a Samaritan, but she, too, was smart like Jimmy's grandmother. For she knew that the man at the well was not one of her people. He was a Jew. She neither expected him to talk to her nor share water with him. But a conversation was initiated by this Jew. And he began to reveal many of the details of her life, so much so that she knew she had met a prophet. Now I don't think Jimmy's grandmother was a prophet, but, boy, this Jew was prophesying the Samaritan woman's life and the possibilities of her future. She stood in awe of the words he spoke to her. She was a good listener, for she heard him when he revealed he was the sought-for Messiah. The water he gave her was eternal life.
Have you had your water today? If so, go and tell the people of your village about the living water.
-- Shearer
One day a woman was drawing water from a well. The well could have been in the hills of Kentucky, but it was not. This well was outside of a Samaritan village named Sychar. The woman was a Samaritan, but she, too, was smart like Jimmy's grandmother. For she knew that the man at the well was not one of her people. He was a Jew. She neither expected him to talk to her nor share water with him. But a conversation was initiated by this Jew. And he began to reveal many of the details of her life, so much so that she knew she had met a prophet. Now I don't think Jimmy's grandmother was a prophet, but, boy, this Jew was prophesying the Samaritan woman's life and the possibilities of her future. She stood in awe of the words he spoke to her. She was a good listener, for she heard him when he revealed he was the sought-for Messiah. The water he gave her was eternal life.
Have you had your water today? If so, go and tell the people of your village about the living water.
-- Shearer
