Compared to those who have lost loved ones or suffered illness personally, not forgetting exhausted health service staff, most of us have relatively little to complain about. Mainly inconvenience, frustration and frankly boredom. We got through January but restrictions seem to be staying with us for some time yet. While we try to stay positive and be grateful, in honesty, it’s easy to feel fed up.
New Testament writer John in chapter 4 of his Gospel describes a day when Jesus sat by a well in Samaria ‘tired from the journey’. That could describe the world in February 2021. We’re tired after a year of corona virus and its consequences. It has brought us to a place seriously lacking in hospitality and we are seriously thirsty!
Jesus did what must have seemed quite desperate for a Jew and asked a Samaritan woman if she would share her bucket and ladle. Knowing her weariness after a history of broken, abusive relationships, He surprised her by offering her ‘living water’, an ever-refreshing, inner ‘spring of water welling up to eternal life’.
I’m just thinking very simply that my Master knows what it’s like to feel drained and weary and He promises those who trust Him inner strength to keep going.
And for that today I’m very grateful.