How Can I Not Love Him?

I have always liked the story of the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well.  It is a very detailed account of an encounter of Jesus with another person considering the fact that the one who wrote the account was not at the well, but in town at the local grocery store. (John 4:8) To remember the story is to remember the way the woman was led from the superficial responses that pushed people away to the heart within her that was longing for acceptance and love.  I have preached many a sermon from this story and remember it as one which was mostly marked up and underlined in the Bible I carried to college long years ago.   

 

The thing I remember most about this story is that it is about a woman who by her own choices had messed up her life.  Most of us have walked too many steps on that road.  Of course, the other part of the story which can never be forgotten is the way Jesus responded to someone with a messed up life.  His response was one of gentle leading toward self-realization.  He did not judge her.  Too many had already judged her back in the village.  Instead, He offered her love and acceptance, grace and mercy, and a sense of self worth and value.  She was radically changed from that moment she spent with Jesus.   

 

There are so many things I have grown to appreciate about the spirit of Jesus and many of those things are found in the way he treated this messed up woman at Jacob's Well.  Like her, I have showed up in His presence more messed up than put together, more filled with things I did not want Him to see than I wanted to show Him, and the awareness that I no longer needed to keep judging and condemning myself when He was freely offering me grace and forgiveness,  How could that woman at Jacob's Well not love Jesus?  And, how can I not declare my love for Him as I rise each morning in the new day He has given me?