“And he had to pass through Samaria” (John 4:4, ESV).
I have a brief thought for you today. It is short, but it will change your life forever if it gets deep into your heart. It is this: Jesus will go entirely out of His way just to connect with you.
The other day, we talked about His transformational interaction with the Samaritan woman. His conversation with her has refreshed the spirits of believers for centuries. Today, I want to center in on the succinct verse above that helps set up the context for the story. John’s gospel tells us that Jesus had to pass through Samaria. He had to. What does this mean?
This phraseology suggests to us that all of the passion of Jesus’ being went into laser beam focus as He chose the path for His journey that day. Because of the animosity between the Jews and Samaritans at that time, any of His countrymen would have purposefully avoided Samaria. The Jews habitually took the long route and skirted completely around the despised territory, rather than cross it. But Jesus had to go through it… for one very specific reason. That reason was waiting for Him, rejected and forlorn, at the side of Jacob’s well.
As I know Jesus did every minute of every day (because He said so in John 5:19), He leaned in on that occasion to see what the Father was doing. Daddy God was going to Samaria to seek out a lonely, wounded soul that had been abandoned by five husbands. And so Jesus knew that’s where He was going too. He was going to Samaria to meet with one woman. One.
Didn’t the Savior of the world have more critical things to do than worry Himself about one woman in a part of the country that everyone else wanted to avoid? Nope. Everything within Him was fixated wholly on this precious daughter. He planned to give His life for her. He knew she desperately needed Him. She was the priority on His schedule that day.
In the same way, He will go to any length necessary to find a way to come face to face with you. You, individual you. You, one seven-billionth of the planet’s population, you. You are that precious to Him. He would cross the universe to encounter you, to be with you, to bring wholeness and life to you. As a matter of fact, He already did.
“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost?” (Matt. 18:12, NLT, bold emphasis mine).
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Can you remember a time that God very personally showed you how much He is paying attention to the extremely specific details of your life… how much He cares about you as a unique and precious individual? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
Feeding On Jesus 