Not So Opposite - October 28, 2010

Good Thursday morning! The wind seems to have blown out my Weather Channel Desktop. That's a new one! Now the little thing is hung; must be a Windows program! We are at a balmy 25°F this morning, just the thing for a bracing walk in the morning light. I like how the notice comes up about "checking for a solution" and then... nothing! Apparently there is no solution; it's just another one of those Windows vs. the application problems. Ah, we do live in a world full of imperfect software. Praise God for the new day!

More information on the woman at the well this morning. Jesus could speak this very line to many women and with a couple of modifications to just as many men in our time.

"- for you have had five husbands, and you aren't even married to the man you're living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!" John 4:18

On the other hand, this is a good reminder that the divorce problem as we see it didn't begin last year. The verse does not say what happened to the five husbands or what caused the separation. We tend to think the woman is promiscuous by the fact that she is shacked up with yet another man. I'm struck by the impression that this woman seems to be my polar opposite. She's a woman, I'm a man, to get past the obvious; I have never been married, she has five former husbands and is living with a potential sixth; and yet, we both have come to Jesus in our sins and he knows all about us. Perhaps all of us on this earth are not so opposite as we might like to think?

We have a tendency to holler "shame!" at this woman at the well when we read about all the husbands. We tend to miss that she is standing before Jesus confessing her sins with the Son of God! What have you done lately to match this? This woman has no place to hide her sin; she is standing right at Jesus' feet. We have no place to hide our sin either, but we do try at times. After Adam had sinned against God, he hid in the bushes. Many years later, this woman, whose name we never get, stands before Jesus and faces the fact of her sin. Jesus could spell out all your sins for you as well, but do we need to wait for that? Confess, repent, and receive forgiveness. I hope practice makes perfect, because I seem to be doing that a lot in my life.

Have a great day in Christ!

Bucky