When I was in high school I was in the musical… I didn’t play a big part, but it was fun nonetheless. There was a moment that I had a bag of candy that was stolen and I went around telling everyone that they didn’t need to steal from me, if they’d just be honest, it’d be no big deal. 

I was obsessed with having them come forward. I didn’t want them to think I was angry, I just wanted them to know that stealing wasn’t a good answer. I wanted them to know they were already forgiven  [and to think I didn’t even know Jesus at this point].

During the last night of the show these two freshman girls, who I treated like sisters at the time, had purchased a new bag of candy for me just to be nice. My reaction? I cried. 

For some reason I always remember that moment. You go through 4 years of high school and you’d think there’s more important things I should remember. But I remember that moment as if it was one of the most important. I was shocked… I felt loved in that moment. 

It might be silly to consider that a moment of love, so small and futile… But they thought of me specifically. They had joy in their eyes when they saw me smile. And that moment became so cherished.

We take for granted all the little moments… the tiny blessings… and you never know who will be changed by the tiny things you have to offer. We sit here giving huge thank you’s and grand celebrations for the giant things people do. They donated $10,000 and we’re melting with joy… 

But what if someone had given you their last $10? What if to them… that $10 went 100 miles. What do you feel then? My first instinct? Guilt. Why would I deserve to take all someone has, even if they’re not just willing but excited to do so? Why wouldn’t the millionaire in my life give to me because they knew I needed the tiniest portion of what they possesed? 

It kills me some times… the way we treat one another. We live this unfair life with unfair circumstances and unfair residuals from our past, our parents past, their parents past… We act like we’re stuck and can’t escape or break the cycle. But some times all it takes is buying a bag of candy. 

I was alone then. Probably more then than I have been as an adult. I was my father’s burden. I lied about my life to make myself more appealing. I pretended I didn’t care that I wasn’t popular or pursued by boys. I acted like I was happy. But behind closed doors?

I cried in dark closets and bathrooms alone. I cut myself. I spent most of my day fantasizing and pretending to be someone I’m not. I hated myself. I hated my life. I hated that I was so alone… But two freshman girls cared enough about me to replace a bag of candy I knew neither of them stole. 

Jesus once met someone like me. She was afraid to be honest around people. She hid from her shame. She chose to fetch water in the middle of the hot day than with the rest of the women as the sun was cool. She was ashamed. Alone. Broken… and all HE did? He asked her for water.

I often think about what that silly and simple request really means… because it seems empty. But it isn’t… He treated her like she was still lovable and approachable. He refused to let the circumstances of the life He knew she lived and her inability to face her sin… stop Him from loving her.

He wasnt ashamed of breaking the rules of their society that said He was a Jewish man who wasnt allowed to talk to a Samaritan woman. He wasnt even phased by all she’d done and all she’d failed to do. He didn’t condemn her or tell her he’d see her after she’d bettered her life. He just asked for water. And that request was the beginning of a new life for her. 

The smallest actions can mean the world to some one. It can change their world. Love is beautiful because you can’t put it in a box… it can have these huge grandiose public displays or the tiniest fragments of joy that look like just the tip of an iceberg with a giant hidden bottom. 

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”  (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)  The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. ) 

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”  “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 

He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”  “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband.  The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”  “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”  

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.  You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.  Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.  God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” 

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”  Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”  Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

John 4:7‭-‬26‭, ‬28‭-‬30 NIV