GOD is not always Gandolf
"7-8 A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, “Would you give me a drink of water?” (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.)
9 The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, “How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (Jews in those days wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.”
11-12 The woman said, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this ‘living water’? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?”
13-14 Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.”
15 The woman said, “Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty, won’t ever have to come back to this well again!”
16 He said, “Go call your husband and then come back.”
17-18 “I have no husband,” she said.
“That’s nicely put: ‘I have no husband.’ You’ve had five husbands, and the man you’re living with now isn’t even your husband. You spoke the truth there, sure enough.”
19-20 “Oh, so you’re a prophet! Well, tell me this: Our ancestors worshiped God at this mountain, but you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place for worship, right?”
21-23 “Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem. You worship guessing in the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day. God’s way of salvation is made available through the Jews. But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter." John 4: 7-23
The conversation Jesus had with this woman is a miracle. He introduced her to salvation through the living water. Hashtag Hallelujah. But this story contains more subtle miracles than the ones we often read about in the gospel. For one, Jesus was a Jew, and this woman was a Samaritan. At this point in history, Jews would not be caught dead speaking with Samaritans.
Kind of like Yankees and Red Sox fans, I think. (I had to Google this to clarify and am now much more confident in this analogy.)
Another miracle can be found in Jesus’ knowledge of the woman’s past. She was most likely gathering water alone because she was ostracized by the other women who disapproved of her lifestyle. She was broken, and Jesus was there to heal her.
This story does not contain any demon-possessed pigs jumping off cliffs (Matt 8:28-34) or 5,000 people being fed with five loaves of bread and two fish (Mark 6:30-44). There is no fighting of Balrog or saving of Faramir’s army by an old man gliding in on a white horse with a hobbit on his lap. I have now morphed into the Lord of the Rings comparisons for those of you searching your Bibles for the word “hobbit.”
Sometimes God is like Gandalf, shinng a bright light on your battles, loud and clear. And sometimes God is quiet.
When God is quiet, we can often mistake this for God being absent. I know I have. God was extremely quiet during my last final when I could have really used a loud and clear vision of my flashcards. But our faith grows exponentially when we tune our ears to God in the silence, because He is not being silent at all. He is being quiet. He is a still small whisper that we sometimes forget to listen to when we are so often surrounded by noise. But when we lean in closer to God rather than walking away in the assumption of his abandonment, when we choose to listen even when it’s quiet, our faith gains strength in the trusting of His voice, even when it’s hard to hear.
God is continually speaking to you, guiding you through each day and each moment with the best advice. Sometimes he is shouting trying to get your attention, other times He is whispering, wanting you to lean a bit closer. He wants to be close to you. So close you can hear him whisper words of love and compassion.
"Be still, and know that I am God"
Psalm 46:10