The Unseen Woman

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" Matthew 11:28

It’s a natural response to hide when we’re in pain, even if healing is right in front of us. It’s almost second nature. 

We run and find cover. 

We go into self preservation mode. 

We bury the hurt under layers and layers of earthly things, like alcohol or doom scrolling; all in hopes of pushing away the pain. 

Sometimes we do such a good job at avoiding it that it becomes deeply ingrained into our beliefs and we can’t separate the suffering from our identity. And we start moving and going about life like the pain is a part of us. We use the pain to justify our actions, to validate our dysfunction. 

When Jesus met the woman at the well, I can only imagine the type of pain she was in. She intentionally chose the most inconvenient time of day to draw water in order to remain hidden. And when she does get the opportunity to be seen, she continued to hide as her pain spoke for her. 

From a place of hurt she said to Jesus “you’re not supposed to be talking to me”. Unfazed by her defense mechanism, He continues the conversation and tries to introduce her to the living water. 

But, she chose to make the sound of her pain louder than Jesus’s true solution, and she only saw an opportunity to keep hiding. 

She wanted a different type of healing, a surface level healing. The kind of healing that wouldn’t deal with the issue at hand. “If I can get this living water He’s talking about, I won’t have to deal with being an outcast”. But God wanted more for her.

He wanted her to experience true healing and not a bandaid. 

He wants more for you. He wants to deal with the root of the issue. 

We don’t get the chance to see God walk her through healing but what we do see is what happens when we have an open and honest interaction with God. He sees us and gives us an opportunity to surrender our stuff to him. He reveals himself as God and gives us joy in return. 

Allow Him to see you and your hurt for what it really is. Don’t cover it up, don’t hide it, or minimize it. Allow God to walk you through the healing you deserve.