We all have a place we’d rather not talk about.

Maybe it’s the betrayal that still stings years later. The abuse no one knows about. The divorce that left you questioning your worth. The addiction, the shame, the grief, or the regret you wish you could erase.

We spend so much of our lives trying to move past those places. We bury them, minimize them, or convince ourselves they don’t matter anymore.

But what if the place you most want to avoid is the very place Jesus wants to meet you?

When we think about the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, many of us have heard the same explanation for years. She came to the well at noon because she was ashamed. She had five husbands because she was immoral. She was an outcast because of her own poor choices.

But what if we’ve been looking at her through the wrong lens? Leanna Magelli was recently on our podcast episode #163, where she unpacks context and history from scripture and, she has a “hot take” on the woman at the well, we all need hear.

When you slow down and read the story carefully, something beautiful begins to emerge.

Jesus didn’t accidentally pass through Samaria.

Scripture says He “had to” go through Samaria. He intentionally chose the road most others avoided. Jewish people commonly traveled around Samaria because of centuries of hostility between the Jews and Samaritans. Yet Jesus walked straight into the place everyone else avoided. Why?

Because He was on His way to meet one woman.

Even more fascinating is where this encounter took place.

John tells us Jesus stopped near Jacob’s well, in the region connected to Shechem. That isn’t just a random geographical detail. Throughout the Old Testament, this land carries the weight of incredible pain. It was the place where Dinah was violated. Where Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery. Where violence, betrayal, murder, and brokenness left deep scars on the land.

It was a place marked by generations of heartbreak.

And that is exactly where Jesus chose to reveal Himself. Isn’t that just like Him? He doesn’t avoid broken places. He redeems them.

For many women, life has its own version of Shechem. A place where something was taken. A place where trust was shattered. A place that still carries memories we’d rather forget. Jesus doesn’t pretend those places never happened.

He walks right into them.

One of the most misunderstood moments in the story comes when Jesus tells the woman, “Go, call your husband.” For years, many have assumed He was exposing her sin to shame her. But what if He wasn’t exposing her to condemn her?

What if He was uncovering the deepest wound in her life so He could heal it?

Historically, women in that culture had very little control over marriage or divorce. They could not simply decide to end a marriage on their own. Life expectancy was much shorter than it is today. Death, disease, war, and tragedy were common realities. We simply don’t know everything that happened in this woman’s life.

What we do know is this:

Jesus knew.

He knew every chapter of her story before she ever spoke a word.

And instead of walking away, He stayed.

He listened.

He invited.

He offered living water.

How often do we believe we have to explain ourselves before God can love us?

We rehearse our failures. We justify our past. We assume we need to clean ourselves up before coming to Him.

But Jesus already knows.

He knows what was done to you.

He knows what you’ve done.

He knows the questions you still carry.

And He still says, “Come.”

One of the most remarkable moments in this story is that Jesus chooses this woman to be the first person He clearly identifies Himself to as the Messiah.

Not a religious leader.

Not one of His disciples.

A Samaritan woman.

A woman the culture overlooked.

A woman carrying pain.

A woman everyone else would have passed by.

Then He entrusted her with His message.

She left her water jar behind, ran back to town, and invited everyone to come meet the One who had changed her life.

Think about that for a moment.

The woman who had been defined by her past became the woman who pointed an entire community toward Jesus.

That’s what redemption does. It doesn’t erase your story. It transforms it.

Many of us spend years looking at ourselves through the lens of our worst moments.

We define ourselves by what happened.

By what someone called us.

By what we regret.

By what we lost.

But Jesus offers us a different lens.

He invites us to see ourselves through the cross.

Through His eyes.

Through His love.

There is something freeing about realizing that your deepest wound is not the end of your story.

Jesus is still in the business of reclaiming broken places. He still walks into Shechems. He still seeks out women sitting beside wells. He still speaks hope into shame. He still restores what sin, suffering, and brokenness tried to steal.

Leanna reminded us that every one of us carries places of pain, disappointment, shame, or loss. Yet Jesus already knows every part of our story.

“He sees all of it,” she said, “and still says, ‘I choose you. I love you.'”

Perhaps today, the invitation isn’t to run from your painful place. Perhaps it’s to let Jesus meet you there.

Because the places we surrender become the places He redeems.

Your past is not your identity. Your wounds are not your future.

Your story is not over.

Leanna also shared a beautiful reminder about identity. “The point is, don’t let that be the lens you see yourself through. Don’t let that be the lens anyone else puts on you. Use His lens.”

She affectionately calls them “Jesus goggles.”

When we see ourselves through God’s eyes instead of our own shame or the opinions of others, everything begins to change.

The same Savior who walked through Samaria is still walking toward women today, offering living water that satisfies the deepest places of the soul.

And He is walking toward you.

Listen to the entire episode with Leanna here>> Episode 163

Enjoy more of Leanna’s Bible teachings as well as her Pastors at https://www.youtube.com/@FCC_TUCSON

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Because your story can become your strength.