“May I have a drink of water?” is a question that is asked ­every day. And the response will usually be like this: a parent or caregiver fills a cup or glass and hands it to the person who is thirsty. Or maybe they give the person a bottle of water. All this is done without thinking twice about needing a container to hold the liquid. Unless the water is bubbling from a water fountain, there is always a container.

When Jesus asked the Samari­tan woman for a drink, she noticed that he didn’t have a container to draw water with. But it turned out that he wanted to give her the water of eternal life, and as she listened and grew to believe in him, she became the container for his life-giving message.

Similarly, when it comes to living water, we are the containers that Jesus wants to fill.

Often it is easy to ask God to fill us, but it is difficult to surrender our ideas and plans. Jesus shows up in places where we least expect to find him, and he shakes up our thinking just as he did for the Samaritan woman.

As she begins to trust Jesus, she realizes the truth about the new life he can fill us with. Her response is to run back to the streets of her town and tell every­one about Jesus.