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Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Grace Has All the Time in the World

Patience - a key "fruit of the Spirit" and major, enviable (albeit rare) virtue. It is also what comes through so clearly in Jesus as he dealt with the woman of Samaria in John chapter four, the I'll-reputed "woman at the well".

The thing that appears most striking about the passage is that Jesus seems to have all the time in the world for her. He seems to be in no hurry whatsoever, as if He had nothing else on His plate, on His eternal agenda, or on His everlasting mind.

True, He almost seems to exude an impatience of spirit on some occasions, "you brood of vipers!", etc, but not here, not with this woman, not on this eternally significant occasion. He had all the time in the world, because this poor woman needed just that - the attention of the most significant person who ever lived, and she had it.

Such is the case any time a person regardless of their past, their darkened and checkered history, their utter human despair turns to Him feeling their need of Him, yearning for what only He can give. For this woman, it was the need to have her deepest soul-thirst quenched. She had sought for fulfillment from man, now only God Himself could take up her case.

Only He can make it as though time ceases, and the moment of meeting becomes an eternal moment of awakening, soul-satisfying, soul-changing eternity-nourishing life. He called it "rivers of living waters, springing up within you"

To the moralist, this woman is a throw-away, but to Jesus, she is a keeper.

For such, Jesus, the timeless One has all the time in the world. As the old hymn states, "all the fitness He requires, is to feel your need of Him".

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