MONROE — There is a beautiful account of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well.
When you read the Scriptures, you become very aware of how important wells were to our biblical friends.
From Abraham to Moses, from Sara to the Samaritan woman, wells were places where folks gathered to get their water.
The Samaritan woman got more than a jug of water: she received life-giving water from Jesus. The well became a source of life in more than one way.
Lenten project
I share this with you because during Lent, St. Clare of Assisi Parish took on the challenge of trying to raise $5,800 to build a well in Tanzania through the Sister Water Project, organized by the Sisters of St. Francis, Dubuque.
It is hard for us to imagine hiking to a well every day, but we discovered that many folks could not make that hike but instead had to get their drinking water from contaminated rivers and streams.
Clean water is something we take for granted, but in most parts of our world people are still in need of a well! Forget drinking fountains, tubs and showers, flush toilets, swimming pools, bottled water, and water in refrigerator doors. No, just give them a replica of Jacob’s well.
So after 40 days of kids bringing change and adults bringing checks and cash, we will be building not one but two wells in Tanzania.
Importance of wells
Who knows, maybe a woman will come to one of our wells for water and encounter Jesus. Sometimes we encounter God in the simple acts of life like having a cool, clean drink of water.
Macrina Wiederkehr wrote a poem about wells entitled “On Being a Well.”
I quote from it: “What makes the world so lovely is that somewhere it hides a well. Something lovely there is about a well, so deep, unpiped and real, filled with buckets and buckets of that life-giving drink. A faucet will do in a hurry, but what makes the world so lovely is that somewhere it hides a well!
“Some experiences are like wells too; people create them. They are life-giving happenings. They are redeeming experiences. They are wells of wonder, wells of hope.”
How many wells could we provide if each parish in the Diocese of Madison provided one? “For I was thirsty and you gave me to drink.”