There was a cartoon I saw sometime back which showed a little boy kneeling by his bed saying his bedtime prayers. He prayed: "As you know, God, Monday is the first day of school. I hope you won't lose sight of me in the crowd. Amen."

Then he climbs in bed, thinks for a minute, and then crawls out again and adds to his prayer: "Oh, and by the way God, I'll be the one wearing the red shorts and a Dallas Cowboys T-shirt."

Like this little boy, the woman in the passage for today, needed someone to see her. She had lost sight of her own life and was sure that God had, too. She was thirsty beyond measure and needed to drink deeply of what only god can offer.

Let's look at her story in John 4:5-29. (NRSV)
[5] So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob …