The Woman at the Well

“Whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty again.” — from John 4

In England, a group of Christian women called the Sisters looked after Ramabai and Manorama. They taught Ramabai English. But there was sad news. Ramabai was partly deaf, and the doctors said she could not train to be a doctor. It was a hard blow.

Then the Sisters took her to visit a special home in London. It was for women whose lives had gone badly wrong, women that most people looked down on. Ramabai saw that the Christians there were kind to them. Some of these women had come to love Jesus so much that they now spent their lives caring for sick people.

Ramabai was amazed. In India she had never seen anyone try to help women like these. She asked the Sister what made Christians care for them.

The Sister who was teaching her opened the Bible to John chapter 4. It tells how Jesus met a woman by a well. Other people stayed away from her. But Jesus talked kindly with her, and offered her “living water” that would never run out.

Ramabai had read the old law books that said women were bad and had no hope. Now she heard about Jesus, who did not look down on women but came to save them. She felt sure that he was truly the Saviour. “Thus my heart was drawn to the religion of Christ,” she wrote. A book by a wise Indian Christian named Father Goreh also helped her see that it was true.

On 29 September 1883, Ramabai and little Manorama were baptised. She took the name Mary. She knew many of her own people would be upset, but she said she never regretted it.

Jesus did not look down on anyone. He went out of his way to be kind to people that others left out. Jesus loves you just as much, and he wants to give you his living water too.

Dear Jesus, thank you that you never look down on anyone. Thank you for loving me. Help me to be kind like you. Amen.