Your Future Outshines Your Past

The very first person to whom Jesus Christ publicly revealed His true identity and mission was the woman at the well in Samaria. Given her past history of having been married five different times and currently living with a man who wasn’t her husband, on paper, it seems like perhaps she was not the most obvious choice to be the first to hear that the Messiah had come. But I know of no other occasion where someone was taught about the true nature of Christ, and ran from the lesson to drag out half of her village to come and hear the gospel message immediately. Seriously. I can’t think of a single other occasion where someone had that strong of a reaction. Christ didn’t look on this woman and see her flawed past. He saw her bright future. He saw her potential to be a great missionary, not just some day after she had learned all of the lessons and was ready, but right that moment. To our Savior, our future is so much more important than our past. He is always asking us to go and sin no more. To come and follow Him. Leave behind the mistakes, the trauma, the grudges, the guilt and the doubt and the shame. We are so much more than a collection of our past mistakes. Let us all trust that when the Savior calls us, He has not made a mistake, He has not overlooked nor forgotten how messy or dysfunctional our life has been up to this moment. But rather He sees how glorious and powerful our testimony can be if we will leave our past behind and embrace our bright future with Him as our guide and our friend and our source of strength and courage and inspiration.The Savior was not careless when He chose to reveal Himself to the woman at the well in Samaria before anyone else, and He is not careless when He chooses us for the great works and wonders He has in store for us.