Day 20 (3/11)
Day 20 (3/11)
Scripture Reading: John 4:27-38
Written by John Anderson
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
When Mary was in the Minneapolis’ HCMC hospital with eight broken ribs just a few weeks ago, after visiting hours in the evening, I was taken to my car in the parking ramp by a Security Guard, a woman in her mid-forties perhaps. She looked a little “shop worn”, tattooed pretty well, but pleasant. After thanking her for the ride I felt the urge to say something to her of an eternal value, so I simply said: “does Jesus mean anything to you?” That was it! She almost exploded in saying: “Yes, He transformed my life seven years ago!”
This woman I judged by tattoos ministered to me, I was dealing with stress with a somewhat heavy heart. We shared back and forth for a few minutes, then she proceeded to pay my $19 parking fee with a swipe of her card and asked if she could take me again the next night. Perhaps she appeared to be someone like that Samaritan Woman… “a little shop-worn.” But she was the one who was Jesus to me; I realized that He was with me at that difficult time!
Who has been Jesus to you in a difficult time of your life?