Women of the Bible

There is a cool contest going on at Christian Women Online's Internet Cafe.  To enter you have to comment and tell which woman from the Bible you would want to have coffee with.  All of the obvious ones were already taken by the time I showed up:  Mary (the mother of Jesus), Mary and Martha, Eve, Ruth, Esther, Sarah, and Hannah.  Even Eunice and Lois (Timothy's mother and grandmother), Priscilla, Leah, and Phoebe had been mentioned.  And I would really like to have coffee with the women still living who chose Rahab and Delilah.  I'm with you.

So who is left?  Well, I thought of Deborah first--how in the world did this woman rise from a male-dominated society into a position of power and leadership?  But then I settled on three others whose lives must have changed beyond recognition after they each individually encountered the same man:  the Lord Jesus.

Have you ever said anything that turned out to be so profound in your life that you can hardly believe it came out of your own mouth?  When Lee and I first began dating, there were some heavy issues Lee had been dealing with that left him feeling unworthy of a promising future.  I told him that I thought he was about to have an encounter with grace.  Several weeks later, he referenced my comment, saying, "Remember when you told me I was about to receive grace?"  I quickly corrected him, saying, "No.  I told you you were about to have an encounter with grace.  Whether you receive it or not is entirely up to you."  Well, he has.  And we both continue to receive grace upon grace in our lives.  Freedom from legalism, having acknowledged that, no, we are not worthy.  Freedom to celebrate that God is crazy about us and wants to use us anyway. 

So I would like to meet three women who had huge encounters with Grace Himself:  the woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, and the woman who touched His garment for healing.  I would like to know the rest of the story.  Did they receive His grace and find freedom?  How were their lives transformed?

I can't wait for heaven.  We'll have eternity to hear every story.  I hope there is a Caribou Coffee.  I'll have a Mint Condition, please.  Or maybe a Turtle mocha...there will be time to try one of everything!