She is known as the Samaritan woman with no name.

This is common in John’s gospel. She met with Jesus face to face by the well. It looks like she was an outcast and looked down upon by her own people. This is evidenced by the fact that she came alone to draw water from the community well when during biblical times drawing water and chatting at the well was the social highpoint of a woman’s day.

However, this woman was ostracized and marked as immoral, an unmarried woman living openly with the sixth in a series of men.

Let us give her a name and hear her speak for herself. I imagined her telling her testimony of how she met Jesus to young women she is mentoring. Her name is Ulubonisiwe, (which means the salvation was shown to her). The well where she met Jesus, is their place of meeting. This is where they meet to talk and pray together. This afternoon, she and a new group of young women are meeting at the well to hear “His story in Ulubonisiwe’s life. She calls her testimony “Jesus’s story in my life”. This is how she began to tell her testimony.

“I did not know what was it that I needed, but I knew something is missing. The village knew me as a woman who jumped from one man to another. What the village did not know, was that I was using men to fix the spiritual problem. Many people are using food to fix the emotional problem. This particular afternoon, I decided to go and fetch water before everybody else comes to fetch water, because I did not want to face the judgement from other women. I felt extremely lonely, empty and missing something I did not even know. I got here; few minutes later came a Jewish man. He asked me to give him water. ( Back then, there was a bitter feeling between Jews and us Samaritans for centuries.) When he asked for a drink, he boldly refused to fit the Jewish stereotype, for Jews never used the same vessels as us, Samaritans. As a Jewish Rabbi, Jesus should know better, Jewish men did not speak to women in public. But Jesus initiated a conversation with a woman, not just any woman, a Samaritan woman. The racial and cultural barriers I believe were broken that day. I was now willing to converse with him. I kept asking myself, who is this man?”

“To cut this long story short, He went straight to the main problem; He offered me the Living water. That is when I realize that was what I needed all my life, but I did not know. He introduced Himself to me as the Messiah after He told me everything that I ever did. My heart was pounding as I was listening to Him with an open mind and open heart. I was able to receive everything I needed from Him. When my eyes met with His, I saw unconditional love in His eyes. His perfect love restored my dignity, chased away my shame and fear,(1John 4:18). My shame and fear was replaced by boldness that comes from knowing that I am loved unconditionally. I left the bucket of water. I was not afraid to be vulnerable. That is why I ran to the village to tell them about the Messiah we were waiting for. I suddenly had something to tell people.”

“ Let me tell you this, young women, when your eyes meet with His, certain things happen: Firstly you forget who you are, what matters is who are you in Him. Secondly you can only tell people about Him, when you met with Him. Thirdly, Now I am certain that God treats all people alike. God is pleased with everyone who worships him and does right, no matter what nation they come from, (Acts 10:34-35), and Fourthly, “It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves.” (John 4:23-24)

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You could wish for a friend,only to find that in Christ you have a friend that sticks closer that a brother. Proverbs 18: 24

Many people asked the following questions in the past weeks:

 If God is faithful and loyal, how come I lost my job that I so needed?

If God is loyal and faithful, then why have I been unemployed for three years, where is His faithfulness?

Does He even care? Some were talking about the unfairness they experienced, but God did not show up.

I can identify with those questions and comments. I experienced the same but different. God recently gave me an assignment to do for Him. I thought because it is HIS assignment, nothing will go wrong. If I take care of my part in it, then God will definitely take care of His part. Something did go wrong. It was something that only God could control. My expectations of how God will take care of His part clashed with the reality.

At that moment I was reminded of Abraham who was promised descendants like the sand of the seas, but God asked him this: Genesis 22: 2 “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”

Really?

The Shumen woman who had peace with her situation of not having a child, yet she was given a child, and that child was taken from her. When her son died, she said, “Did I ask a son of my lord? Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive me’? (2Kings:48-37)

I am wondering, did God fail to provide an employment for this young man? Did God not realize how much this young woman needed her job when she lost it? Did God fail me, when I specifically trusted Him to take care of the very thing that went wrong? Did God change His mind about the promise He gave Abraham?

Shall I go on? Don’t get me started about the young woman who lost a baby about a month or more ago, one of her many questions was, why did God give her the child in the first place, when He knew very well that the child was going to die. Is God cruel? Did God fail us or is it our expectations that failed us? You probably have many verses that have answers to the above questions.

But for the purpose of this devotional, we will look only at one of many Scriptures.

Daniel 3:24-27 But suddenly, Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and exclaimed to his advisers, “Didn’t we tie up three men and throw them into the furnace?” “Yes, Your Majesty, we certainly did,” they replied. “Look!” Nebuchadnezzar shouted. “I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire unharmed! And the fourth looks like a god!” Then Nebuchadnezzar came as close as he could to the door of the flaming furnace and shouted: “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here! “So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stepped out of the fire. Then the high officers, officials, governors, and advisers crowded around them and saw that the fire had not touched them. Not a hair on their heads was singed, and their clothing was not scorched. They didn’t even smell of smoke!

The fourth man was in the fire with them. These young men trusted God, but I am wondering if they did expect God to jump in the fire with them. I certainly would not have expected that. I would expect that God will prevent the fire. But God did something that only a faithful and loyal friend would do, to be with them in the fire. But in this case, it is God Almighty who chose to be in the fire, over extinguishing fire for them.

It is the same choice He made when he entered our lives. He chose to be Emmanuel, God with us. God showed up, would it not be better if He prevented the whole thing? Did He fail? NO! God never fail, it is our expectations that fail us. God showed up in all of those above incidents; but we did not recognize Him, Abraham, the Shunem woman and three young men did recognize Him.

And if God did tell us how is He going to show up, then what will be the point in this verse: ”Indeed, our lives are guided by faith, not by sight”(2Cor.5:7).

See you all next week. Stay blessed.

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I wondered what the conversation between Thomas (one of the disciples of Jesus), the leper (one of the ten lepers Jesus healed), and the man born blind would be like.

I imagined them sitting around the fire talking. They were all looking back to their initial first steps with the Lord Jesus.

Thomas said,” I wish I believed my fellow disciples the first time they told me that Jesus was raised from the dead. I felt bad when He had to show me His hands and all His wounds. The worst part is that, He was not even there when I told my fellow disciples that, unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe (John 20:25), but He knew what I said.

How do you know He knew? Asked the leper.

As soon as He laid those eyes on me, this is what He said, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe Thomas (John 20:27).” Oops, that was hectic”, said the man born blind. It was not all, said Thomas, Jesus continued, “Thomas because you have seen me, you have believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed”.(John 20:29) After that, Thomas looked up as he was fighting back the tears. Then he began to speak again with tears in his eyes, those words broke me and made me. There was something about His voice and His eyes as He was saying those words.

The leper interrupted Thomas; I think I felt that too after He healed me. I went back to Him to praise Him. He said to me: “Were you not then cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well”(Luke 17:17-19). There was something about His eyes, and there was definitely something in His voice. Something that made me want to follow that voice.

The man who was born blind, agreed, (John 9:35-38) after He opened my eyes, the Pharisees were busy questioning me and throwing me out. Jesus looked for me and when He found me he said this, “Do you believe in the Son of Man? “There was something in that voice, and that question went straight to my heart. Yes, He opened my physical eyes with the mud, but that question opened my spiritual eyes. I heard something in His voice and saw something in his eyes that I cannot explain. All I know, from that day on, I wanted to trust Him and worship Him,(John 9:38).

Thomas closed His eyes and said: It was love that I saw in Jesus’s eyes that day. There was love in His voice too when He spoke to me, said the leper. I think that love was mixed with sadness, said the man born blind. In my case, Thomas said, that love was mixed with sorrow and disappointment. I never saw or even knew that combination before. It was His love that broke into me. That day, He became “my Lord my God.

We can establish from the above conversation that, it is the LOVE OF JESUS that draws us to HIM, not the anger or judgment.

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Two weeks ago, I promised that I will be coming back to the same Scripture the very next week. I did not. If you have been following this blog for a while, you will know by now that it is not unusual, because I don’t write for the sake of writing. I am writing because I feel led by the Spirit to write about something.

However this time, there was something unusual. I had all the material to write, but for some strange reason, I could not bring myself to put the thoughts and material together. And also I did not feel led to write.

Now listen to this: At the beginning of this week, I received a text message from a pregnant young woman saying: “please pray, they cannot find my baby’s heart beat.” Shortly afterwards, the other one followed:, “my baby is dead, why?”

I went to the hospital to see her. As I was driving to the hospital I said to God: “I don’t know what she needs right now, please use me to be whatever You want to be to her right now. If she needs a shepherd, be her Shepherd through me and if she needs a mother, be her Mother through me”.

I sat next to her in the hospital. She wept as she was telling me what happened. Her body was shaking. I held her close to me and prayed inside. I witnessed the agonizing pain of a woman who lost her baby.

I remembered the story of the woman from Shumen, who also lost her boy. I realized there and then that I did not acknowledge her pain enough. Now, I found myself between a woman who lost her baby in the ninth month of her pregnancy, and the old woman who past the age of having children, was told that she will have a child.

Now that child is gone. I don’t know their pain, but what I witnessed on Monday was not something I wish for anybody. I also realize that, I don’t know how much it cost the woman from Shumen to hold that head high and walk tall. I also don’t know how much energy she used to fight back those tears and make a straight face when she says: “everything is fine”(2 Kings 4:26)

The Author and Perfecter of our faith also said, “Your brother will rise again.”(John 11:23), yet He wept in verse 35.

Back to the woman from Shumen, her faith was stronger than the loss she was feeling. To say “everything is fine”, when you don’t even have a guarantee that Elijah will raise the child back to life is an amazing faith.

When we walk by faith, everything is always fine, regardless of the circumstances.

Is it well with your soul? Stay blessed.

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2Kings 5: 18-26 “One day when her child was older, he went out to help his father, who was working with the harvesters. Suddenly he cried out, “My head hurts! My head hurts! “His father said to one of the servants, “Carry him home to his mother.” So the servant took him home, and his mother held him on her lap. But around noontime he died. She carried him up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and left him there. She sent a message to her husband: “Send one of the servants and a donkey so that I can hurry to the man of God and come right back.” “Why go today?” he asked. “It is neither a new moon festival nor a Sabbath. “But she said, “It will be all right.” So she saddled the donkey and said to the servant, “Hurry! Don’t slow down unless I tell you to.” As she approached the man of God at Mount Carmel, Elisha saw her in the distance. He said to Gehazi, “Look, the woman from Shunem is coming. Run out to meet her and ask her, ‘Is everything all right with you, your husband, and your child?’ “Yes,” the woman told Gehazi, “everything is fine.”

Where I come from this is not how a woman, who just lost.., no let me put it this way, a woman whose child just died, behaves. She supposed to be sitting in a mattress in the corner of the room with her head down. She is not supposed to look people in the eyes and ordering them around. She should be waiting on people to tell her what to do next.

When my dad died my mother told me with pride that, she wore black clothes the whole year, which means she mourned for my dad for the whole year. I don’t remember her telling me that, someone heard her pain. She said this about her pain: “I never thought I would narrate the story of your father’s death without tears, really time heals”.

That tells me, there was a prescribed way of grieving. It was all about her wearing black clothes and do as custom requires.

What strike me between my eyes about this woman from Shunem, is that she was able to compose herself till she met the man of God. Her faith made her lift up her head and walked tall.
She is not in denial as the professionals today will say. She has faith. She is confusing the devil. The devil is confused, she should be cursing God or really telling her very sad story, but no, this woman said, even to her husband, “it will be alright.”

 Any mother knows, inside her was an agony. There was a pain inside her, however she speaks hope. She had faith. Faith confuses the devil, (Job 2:4-6) while it pleases God,(Heb 11:6). This is what my friend told me when I asked how is she doing? She reminded me of this woman. She said God is great.

What I want to leave you with this week, faith does not only please God, faith confuses the devil.

I am coming back to this text next week. 

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