“A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’ (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.)  The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’”

(John 4: 7-15 NRSV)

Have you ever found yourself alone with someone famous? It happened to me one night back in the ‘60’s as I was asked to Pipe (bagpipes!) into a political meeting the Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Elliot Trudeau.

We were alone at the back awaiting the signal to begin our march up the central aisle. He was trying to get his signature red rose in its proper place and kept asking me if it looked OK. I was a little tongue tied but stammered out some advice for our Prime Minister and he warmly thanked me for my help and then indicated I should start playing as his introduction was coming to an end.

Upon his death hundreds of red roses rained down from grateful Canadians and a single red rose adorned his coffin. I already had my moment in the presence of greatness and thought of it many years later when he died.

The bible is filled with stories of people whose lives were forever changed by a moment together with Jesus. Such moments come in unexpected ways and happen at unseen moments. A Samaritan woman experienced such a moment and it forever changed her, changed her relationship with a Jew, a man, a prophet, a Messiah. It changed her relationship with her neighbours, and it changed them as they too experienced a moment together with the Christ of God.

How wonder it is to have such a moment, indeed many moments together with Jesus as we journey with him through this day.

Prayer: Holy One, I claim this moment with you as I continue through the day, a moment to connect once again and receive the gift of your presence and the promise of your peace.

Kenn Stright