So (Jesus) left Judea and returned to Galilee. He had to go through Samaria on the way. Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.”

– John 4:3-7

Today I am thankful that God seeks me.

On Jesus’s travels from Judea to Galilee, Scripture says “He had to go through Samaria on the way.” Most Jews would have gone the long way to avoid the Samaritan people, who they found contemptible. Instead, Jesus was filled with compassion, and set out to meet a woman who desperately needed love and freedom only God could give her.

Jesus came a long way to meet this woman. He made sure He and the disciples arrived at a well at just the right time. Scripture says Jesus was tired and weary, but He was ready to transform lives. Jesus intentionally sought this particular woman out, a woman who was suffering under the weight of the town’s rejection and gossip, beneath the burden of her many sins. He asked her for a drink, even though He intended to give her living water.

God had it all arranged. From before time, God had pictured this moment, set in motion every detail, and loved this forsaken Samaritan and all those the story of her experience with Jesus would impact.

God seeks us, too. He places circumstances in our path that will ultimately lead us to encounter His grace. He wants to meet with us, talk with us, and change us.

So often, we think that WE are the ones coming to God or returning to Him, when HE has been seeking us and pursuing us all along. It was God who created us. Jesus stepped out of Heaven and set aside His glory for us.

As Luke 19:10 says, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.” His cross demonstrates the lengths God went to do just that.