Need

Jesus needed to get away from the Pharisees because they were making an issue of the number of disciples being baptized by John vs. Jesus and His disciples, so He left Judea and started towards Galilee. He had to travel through Samaria to get to Galilee. Samaria was about halfway between the two regions.

The Bible says, "He needed to go through Samaria," which was true.
I checked it out on the map.

He needed to go geographically.
He needed to go spiritually as well.

He needed to meet a woman who needed Him.
But first, He needed her.
He asked her for a drink as He waited by the well.
He was weary from His journey so He rested there
while His disciples went into the town to get some food.

You can read the story in the book of John, chapter four.

To make a long story short,
He was spiritually compelled to go
through Samaria to meet this particular woman
and meet her particular need.
No other man ever met her need before
and because of her testimony,
many more believed.

Today,
I needed to go to Walmart, the library, the UPS store, the bookstore, and the feed store. I was thinking about this story because I read it this morning.

Geographically, I needed to go to these places.
Physically, I needed people to do things for me at these places.
But spiritually, I thought about why I needed to go.

Perhaps someone in those places needed a drink of living water.
Perhaps someone needed a discerning word to bring to light
things hidden in darkness.

Everyday,
we need to go through Samaria to get to Galilee.

And every day,
there is a Samaritan woman at the well,
waiting to reap the fruit
of our need to travel through her town.