Hope-Filled Knowledge

There is a story of a man who once came upon a woman who was considered an outcast (by her society for one reason and by his society for being of her society - very confusing, just know they shouldn't have been talking). They met at a well. The man asked her to draw him some water and she was shocked! Why was this man, who is supposed to despise her, tlaking to her, much less asking her to draw him water? She asked and he basically blew their differences aside, telling her she should focus on who he actually was, not on his culture. He asked for her husband, she told him she had none, and he replied that she had had five husbands and the man she was now living with she had not married. The woman was shocked, but not for reasons you would expect. No, she jumped up, ran to the town and told everyone, "Come see this man who has told me everything I have ever done!" And her words were filled with joy. Why would she want to be told all she had done? Why would the knowledge that someone knew her sordid past fill her with hope? I've been pondering this lately. I came to a sort-of conclusion. Realizing that this man knew her past, knew details no one else knew, and realizing that he spoke to her, loved her, anyway, freed the woman. Surely if he offered her a chance to blow aside their cultural differences and even offer to draw her water - though of a different kind, to be sure - this man, this strange man, must be noteworthy. I think about things in my past that I despise, that I separately want never to remeber again, I am thankful that no one knows every detail. Yet something about thsi man knowing every detail and loving the woman the same...that caused great hope and assurance and freedom. May we walk in this freedom today, knowing we are known and yet still loved.