The woman left her water jar
and went into the town and said to the people,
"Come see a man who told me everything I have done.
Could he possibly be the Christ?"
John 4:27-28
If the woman left her water jar how would she get more water later? Were the water jars unique to each family or person or were they community given and shared? Either way, she left hers because she was so eager to tell her community about this man, Jesus. Maybe she absentmindedly forgot it, like I forget my keys or leave my purse when I'm preoccupied.
This woman's life was fundamentally spiritually changed because Jesus offered her living water, water that would stay within her and fulfill her spiritually and then, as Jesus explains further in this passage: "My food is to do the will of the One who sent me". Our Lenten fasting takes on a higher spiritual level when we think of this gospel and equate our prayer time to such importance that we neither need to eat nor drink of which we have decided to fast. If we changed a habit to replace our time spent, for instance, if we changed from watching entertainment to praying for special intentions, hopefully we will see that time spent wisely will reap many benefits, rather than idle time passed.. Like that woman's water jar seemed irrelevant once she was eager to share what she learned from Jesus, perhaps our lives will fundamentally change as we continue to follow Jesus, and those things which were so significant in our lives, may not seem so important.
