Do I Know You?
Can you remember a time when something totally unexpected happened to you?Almost exactly 4 years ago, while babysitting my grandson, we made a trip to our favorite fast food chicken restaurant. Of course the chicken wasn't the only draw...it has an indoor playground!
After eating, we headed to the play area as promised. Because he was only 2 years old at the time, I went inside the glassed area with him. We hadn't been there long when three children and what looked to be a teenaged babysitter came and sat down at a table on the other side of the glass. The youngest of the three children was the cutest red headed, freckle faced boy -- I guessed him to be about five or six years old. Catching my eye, I returned his gaze with a smile. He was such a cutie!
With my attention focused on my toddling grandson, I didn't notice that the red headed boy from the other side of the glass was now sitting at my feet. He caught my attention and asked, "Are you my nana?" Awww! My heart just melted. "No honey, I'm not", I told him. And with that, he was off to play. Immediately thoughts started swirling through my head...
My first thought was, "Why did he think I might be his nana?"
Why didn't he KNOW I wasn't his nana? Did I look like his nana? Did he want a nana and thought I might look like a good one?
My second thought was, "WHY DID HE THINK I MIGHT BE HIS NANA?!"
If he thinks I might be his nana, I must LOOK old enough to be his nana! RATS!!!
I still feel younger than the age posted on my birth certificate!
Oh well...guess I needed a frank discussion with Mister Mirror Mirror!
In the book of John chapter 4, we read about an encounter Jesus had with a woman who had come to draw water from the area well. Jesus had traveled through Samaria and had stopped at the well to rest. Now traveling through Samaria was something Jewish people did not do. Samaritans were considered half breeds to the Jews -- so when traveling, they would go around Samaria to avoid those living there. Not Jesus. When the woman arrived at the well, Jesus asked her for a drink. Because she was a Samaritan and he a Jewish man, she was surprised at his request. This leads into a discussion of living water and how HE could provide it to her. Up to this point, the woman thinks that she is just talking to a crazy, misguided Jewish man -- that is until he starts telling her everything about her life.... that she had been through five husbands and was now living with a sixth man. He knew her! She knows that a Messiah is coming but she supposes him to be a prophet. Jesus revealed to her that he was in fact -- the Messiah. At that, she left her water jar and went back into town and told the people there about meeting the man at the well. She asked them, "Do you think he might be the Christ?" Well they all came to see for themselves. Scripture says that at their begging, he stayed an additional two days. Many believed not only because of what Jesus taught but also because of what the woman had told them.
So to me, the best part of this is -- Jesus knew the woman and saw her value. And better still -- He knows you and He knows me and sees value in all of us -- no matter what. Isn't that awesome?!
Read Romans 3: 22 and 23 with me.
"God makes people right with himself through their faith in Jesus Christ. This is true for all who believe in Christ, because all people are the same: Everyone has sinned and fallen short of God's glorious standard, and all need to be made right with God by his grace, which is a free gift. They need to be made free from sin through Jesus Christ." (New Century Version)
The woman at the well and her entire town experienced the grace of Jesus that day...and we experience that same grace today.
Now back to the red headed cutie who haunts my memory bank...
He needs a good nana...everyone needs a good nana. But more importantly, we need a savior...every one needs a savior!
Love till next time,
Lanna
