When the prophet, Nathan, confronts King David about his sin (2 Samuel 12) he does so by first telling him a story. After providing the setting for the story, Nathan begins the main narrative by saying, “Now there came a traveler…” David was incensed that this man would commit such acts to appease one who was merely passing through only to have Nathan point out that David is the man who committed such evil to feed a sinful urge that would depart full. This short story is for those who have ever been visited by a traveler.
Chloe was beautiful, and she knew it. Not at first though, it was a slow realization, the kind that developed along with her. Two memories find their source seemingly at the beginning of her life: being in church every time the doors were open and people showering her with compliments on her appearance. As a child, she showed an interest in Sunday School, summer camp, and children’s choir. She tried to live as her parents had taught her and understood the disgrace that comes with not presenting herself as was expected of a Christian; and she wanted to please.
When she was 16 she tested the boundaries of what she could wear, and noticed the sideways glances from people at church. Those she had known since she was old enough to know she knew people were distancing themselves from her. No one really said anything to her directly, or her parents; at least not that she heard, but she did hear them talking to each other. Ashamed of the disgrace her parents were suffering, she decided it was better to follow the rules the preacher had made clear for the past 16 years of her life. And she noticed that when she did, even the pastor’s wife complimented how beautiful she looked in long dresses. She felt good about herself. It was encouraging to be complimented by the pastor’s wife, and she had missed being told she was beautiful and her 17th birthday was rolling around so it was time to put that chapter behind her.
Chloe’s 6 month attire excursion was a phase she tested more than just at church. During this time a senior at her high school had noticed her and after a few lunch conversations began showing up at her church even though it was right at the end of her experiment. He graduated, but the following year would still show up at the high school to say hey to her. They had started dating her senior year. Six weeks in, she was expecting. Two weeks prior to her discovering this, he had ghosted her, apparently joining the military. When she could no longer hide it from others, her church was quick to shun her, her parents scolded her for the shame she caused them and for failing to live like a Christian. They lamented their lack to take more drastic measures as they should have known when she started dressing provocatively at 16 that she was on a slippery slope.
She didn’t know what to do. She thought he was kind, he had told her she was beautiful, and that once she graduated they would marry. He was in fast food, but figured he could get management in a few months. They would be happy, except that’s not at all what he did. She barely graduated, but she graduated none the less. Her daughter, Zoe, was born that October. She had applied for a front desk job the day after graduation and landed it with a short interview. Her new boss kept talking about how impressive she looked and having her be the face people see when they enter would represent the company well. She was glad her boss liked her and he assured her she didn’t’ need to worry about losing her job as she could pick right back up after her baby was born if she wanted. His kindness reminded her of the people she grew up with before she ever met her daughter’s father. His compliments gave her the encouragement she needed to keep carrying on. She was determined not to depend on her parents at all and this job was perfect. Her boss bought a few items for Zoe after the birth, and on a couple occasions he and his wife came by to visit her during her maternity leave.
When she came back to work, her boss kept his promise. Business was booming, which ensured she got plenty of over time. This also ensured he worked later as well. His compliments increased with the overtime; but she didn’t mind. She rather liked it and felt she could express gratitude in small ways like wearing her hair like she knew her boss would appreciate seeing it. He noticed and her unspoken compliments to him grew until they found themselves in a secret relationship that extended beyond the office. His wife soon found out and kicked him out; but not before she got fired as a failed attempt at a sacrifice to appease her boss’s scorned wife and disintegrating marriage. She was glad she didn’t talk to her parents anymore as this would just be an excuse for them to further condemn her. In her fear and anxiety she decided that God was of no help, and anyone who said they followed Jesus were nothing more than judgmental hypocrites who just hadn’t gotten caught in their own failures yet, permitting them to judge her for her misfortunes.
A now ex-coworker reached out to her within the week and offered her a place to live. Beth was nice to her, she had always been complimentary at work, and was quick to second the compliments she heard her ex-boss toss Chloe’s way. Beth offered Chloe and her daughter a place to crash for at least a month or two until she got on her feet again. That night, over a bottle of wine (since Beth convinced Chloe she needed to unwind and relax from the stress), Beth seemed to help her make sense of her misfortunes. "Men are just travelers. They never stick around, they just take what they want and then leave when things get hard." Chloe agreed, she needed a friend, one who would stick around and never leave her.
Chloe felt carefree around Beth and safe. Beth helped her get a job with one of her other friends, but told Chloe she and Zoe are more than welcome to continue to live with her if she didn’t mind splitting the bills. Beth jokingly reminded Chloe that while she was a “super hot mom”, they still had to keep the place heated in the winter and that the land lord only took cash (winkingly saying, she had tried). That was one thing Chloe loved about Beth, she was always complimenting her and making her laugh. That’s when she realized, perhaps Beth is what she had been chasing all this time. She felt like she mattered to Beth. She felt safe and beautiful. She felt accepted and that Zoe was cared for.
By the time Zoe turned 2, Chloe and Beth had changed their social media status to “in a relationship”. This definitely got the attention of her parents, but only long enough for them to tell her to not come around for holidays anymore. Cursing came through the phone, from both ends of the conversation, and ended with Chloe needing a new phone as hers was now in pieces on the other side of the room. Beth was there to rescue her from her anger and life carried on.
Zoe turned 4 and on her birthday, Beth introduced Chloe to a new friend. Chloe, not too fond of how this woman looked at Beth, asked her after the party about her. This resulted in a confrontation where Beth expressed she felt confined and ended with Chloe being told she was too clingy and dependent and that her partner of 2 years was out. Chloe found herself alone on the very couch she found security in almost two and a half years earlier. The one who had told her others were travelers had traveled on herself.
Zoe was asleep, and Chloe only knew to do what seemed to help her last time she was lonely so she went to the bar across the street. And here she sat, not crying anymore, surprisingly. She had dried that up prior to heading out. As she was changing out of her sweats to go grab a drink she looked in the mirror and tried telling herself the things others had told her. It wasn’t believable coming from the broken woman in the mirror. By the time she crossed the street, Chloe was in search of something far more intoxicating that alcohol. She sat at the bar, and within 20 minutes was approached by a man. Looking barely old enough to be in a bar and obviously inexperienced at the game, it was easy for Chloe to elicit compliments from him. She took him back across the street and he left the next morning. That Sunday morning she sat alone on the couch, feeling a bit of shame for what she had done but mostly angry with herself that she left Zoe alone. She promised herself that she would never be that carelessly selfish again. She kept that self-promise, for three weeks; but things became stressful at work. Life was a vicious cycle of work and Zoe. She deserved a break. So at 1 AM, in order to ensure Zoe was deep in sleep, Chloe slipped across the street, and after about an hour, was crossing again with another companion for the night. The compliments flowed more freely than the alcohol, but the rising sun only served to light a once-more empty bedroom and wake a hungry Zoe. Chloe realized she had once more chased the high, but this time there was no shame, there was justification as she reminded herself that she deserved to be loved and cherished, that her life was hard and she shouldn’t feel bad for taking some time for herself. She resolved to put a little more effort into her appearance at work, and that seemed to help. Compliments came her way, and with each one she could feel herself becoming more beautiful.
The next 2 years came and left just like the 3 failed relationships they contained, and once more it was Zoe’s birthday. Ben approached her at work with a gift for Zoe. She had known Ben for the past 2 years as he started working there shortly after her second “street crossing”. She honestly tried to avoid him when she could as he had introduced himself the first week and asked her if she knew of any churches in the area as he had newly moved in. She informed him that she hates hypocrites and therefore hates church and quickly found an excuse to end the conversation and get back to work. Admittedly, she had tried to turn his head a time or two since then, just to see if she could, but began to wonder if he was into guys as he never reciprocated her advances. His presenting a gift for Zoe was new as he didn’t do so last year, and Chloe quickly lit up as she had received “gifts” like this before. She thought she had finally snagged this church going hypocrite as well. She smiled and flirtatiously said she didn’t know how she could thank him for being so thoughtful. His response was that he was praying for her and Zoe and God had put it on his heart to give this to Zoe.
That night her and Zoe opened Ben’s gift. It was a children’s story Bible. Rage filled Chloe’s entire body, but she resisted the urge to act out for Zoe’s sake. Zoe was ecstatic!!She was learning to read but didn’t have any books of her own. Against everything inside herself, but still haunted by the two times she left her daughter home alone in the middle of the night, Chloe read the first story to Zoe. Zoe was full of questions about how someone could just speak and trees appear. Chloe remembered these stories, but didn’t have an answer, she was raised in church, but her experience was more about HOW she was supposed to dress, act, and talk with very little about the things Zoe was asking. She figured Ben would bug her the next day about the gift and she could ask him then, just to appease Zoe; but he didn’t. He was out of the office for the rest of the week. Each night that week, Zoe pleaded with her mother to read a chapter before bed until she bent her mother to her will. With each story Zoe asked more questions. Sunday night, Chloe took a moment to jot down a few that seemed to stump her most as she figured she would ask Ben and then answer her daughter.
That Monday, Ben followed up on his gift. She posed the questions and Ben was glad to answer her. She wrote them down, explaining that she just wanted to help her daughter get some answers so she would leave her alone. Ben smiled, and offered to answer questions anytime. It took them about two months to work through a good portion of the book and from time to time she would ask Ben questions. He had also gifted her a Bible and suggested that it might help her find answers to some of Zoe’s questions as they continue to read the children’s book.
Nightly reading became a time Chloe looked forward to as Zoe smiled and cuddled with her as they read. Her daughter was the one constant source of happiness for her. Chloe had started the practice of looking ahead in preparation for the next evening’s story as a way to impress her daughter with he own knowledge of the story book. The next night, they would read the story where Jesus met a woman at a well and told her He was the Messiah. She figured Zoe would ask what “Messiah” meant so in preparation, she grabbed the Bible and her phone as a digital dictionary and set out to read the entire story Zoe’s next chapter was summarizing.
As she read, she found herself assuming the woman at the well’s name was Chloe. She didn’t know why, but it seemed kind of neat to her so she just rolled with it. As she came to Jesus saying He had water that one would never thirst again she thought it was an odd thing to say. She had been told by men and women that she made them thirsty, and snickered to herself as she read Jesus’ words to the woman. Then Jesus called out the Chloe-at-the-well for having 6 different relationships. Suddenly the woman not only shared her name, but shared her face. As she continued to read Jesus’ words it felt like she heard them, “I who speak to you am He.” She stopped, staring at that sentence. Remembering what she had been told as a child, that Jesus died for people who were sinners, and rose the third day to show he paid for their sins. It never made much sense, until this moment. As this realization washed over her she heard the words once more in the depths of her being, “I who speak to you am He.” She began to cry, not out of sorrow, but out of joy. She realized Jesus had taken her sin. The very God that she had walked away from was speaking to her. She left Him for others who left her while He pursued her to this very moment. The travelers of her life that always left her seeking more was the thirst that kept her coming back to her well; but Jesus changed all that. She could feel the peace. She inexplicably knew that she no longer needed the water she had craved all her life; why go to a well when she now had The Living Water who would never leave her. She didn’t fully know what all this meant, but she could tell the water now flowing out of her was also all around her and all she wanted was more of Him. Within the past few fleeting moments the Chloe that started reading that night was not the same Chloe that now sat there.
The next day she went to Ben’s desk and stood there trying to hide her joy enough to tell him what God did. Through tears, Ben shared with her that he had been praying for her since shortly after he had started working there and was asking God to graciously use Zoe’s birthday gift in Chloe’s life. Chloe began to attend the church Ben was a member of and Zoe loved making new friends. Ben was married not too long after this, and his new bride and Chloe became good friends. They took care of Zoe so Chloe could go on her first mission trip, and when she returned she shared with them her desire to help point others to Jesus. Within 3 years she had changed jobs to work in a ministry for single mothers, sharing with the women and children the all sufficiency of Jesus.
You see, Chloe was beautiful; but she knew her Savior was infinitely more so!