© VERESOVICH/ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES PLUS/GETTY IMAGES
Here, at this humble water source
a woman of Samaria
encountered a man
from Nazareth
Where she saw him
a travel-weary Jew
thirsty, foreign
he saw himself
the blessed bearer
of a gift eternally fulfilling
Where she saw herself
a scorned outcast
mired in a shameful past
He saw her
the beloved heir
of a fathomless wellspring of blessing
And in the end, of course
his view prevailed,
and she set out, rejoicing—
her waterpot abandoned—
to lead even those who’d scorned her
to that wellspring of the Christ
—Joanne Otto
