Many people who have never read the Bible know the Samaritan Woman, also called the Woman at the Well, lived an immoral life. Jesus confronted her sin when he told her that she had had five husbands and was now living with a man she hadn’t married.

This woman’s sin isolated her from other women. She drew water from the community well in the heat of the day to avoid them. She didn’t have a best friend to listen to her stories or an older woman who could sympathize with her. Immorality isolates women from each other—other sins drive wedges between people, too.

She tried to distract Jesus with talk about worship locations. Then Jesus revealed he was the Messiah for whom her people waited. The Bible doesn’t say outright she confessed her sin and repented of them. It shows she must have. John wrote, “Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of what the woman said when she testified, ‘He told me everything I ever did’” (John 4: 39). Jesus replaced the isolation of The Woman at the Well with purposeful relationships.

Challenge: Confess, repent, and share Jesus to experience restoration with God and others.

Claudean Boatman enjoys January, not because of a new start but because January is one month closer to flower season! She earned a Master of Theological Studies from Gateway Seminary, Rocky Mountain Campus (Denver area), in 2023.