Théa Rosenburg has worked as a dental assistant, an indie musician, a peddler of handknit gifts, an art teacher, an informal librarian, and an editor. She is a regular contributor to Story Warren; her work has also appeared on The Rabbit Room, Risen Motherhood, Deeply Rooted, and in Wildflowers Magazine. Théa lives with her husband and four daughters in the Pacific Northwest where, when the wind blows from the right direction, she can smell the ocean from her front yard. She reviews children’s books for her blog, littlebookbigstory.com

Find out more about the Book & Album “Only the Lover Sings” on the following podcasts…

The Well

By Matthew Clark

Jesus, tired as he was, went and sat by Jacob’s well 

There was no else around, until a woman came from town 

She wound her way to him, With an empty water jar 

She was worn and withered thin, With only thirst to fill her heart 

And Jesus asked her for a drink; now,

she was used to forward men 

So she smiled and played the game,

Cause isn’t every man the same? 

When he tried to catch her eye, she would not cast a glance 

Into the mirror of those depths, Where the Living Waters danced 

Interlude 

Then he touched a nerve so deep,

he said the worst thing he could say 

When he laid her sin out plain,

In the open light of day 

But he would not give up yet,

Till she could hear him say her name 

But she pivoted so quick, just trying to outrun all her shame

With a wave she flung off hope, She dismissed it like a joke 

Said, “It’ll all work out someday, if Messiah ever shows” 

But as she took her jar to go,

She turned just quick enough to see 

A word well up in Jesus’ face, Enough to rinse a harlot clean 

BRIDGE

And I, I want to see it 

I want to look him in the eye,

I want to look him in the eye 

I, I want to see it

See what made that woman sing,

see what made that woman sing 

Because she dropped her old clay jar, and ran to tell the rest 

Of the man who lifted every burden, Weighing on her chest, 

And she sang out clear and clean, Like a virgin for her groom,

“Let the whole world come and drink 

From the Well who makes what’s sad untrue”     

© 2022 Matthew Clark, Path in the Pines Music ASCAP