By Gregory Waldrop
Why do we call our planet Earth; most observers would look at its 75% fluid make-up and name it, more appropriately, Water! As the Creation stories suggest and evolution theorizes, when water arrives and finds its place in our world, life abounds. Once water shows itself, life happens full force. In our faith life, new life shown in baptismal waters requires everything water provides—cleansing, support, refreshment, nourishment, relief, adventure. Water makes life and holy water makes life new.
Where in your community can water instruct and guide us on our environmental/religious journey? Where does water show its life-giving role best where we live? How can we fashion clean water’s central place for life into a regular devotional? Where in our world does clean water begin holy conversations about God’s life-giving work?
- A nurse in one of my churches prayed for her church every time she washed her hands at work and at home; another one, every time he watered his flowers;
- One layman who served on his local Water Board often took confirmation classes down to the water system’s pipes and pumps when the symbol of water in baptism was their topic of study;
- A favorite Bible teacher never tired of taking us to the lake and showing us the powerful water cycles of the Creation stories in action;
- At church camp, we read all the Scripture verses about water we could find before we remembered our baptism in the camp spray fountain. If that weren’t enough, God provided a soft rain for us to enjoy as we played in the fountain and lived into the Scriptures;
- In another camp, water balloons helped us celebrate the end of a faithful and fruitful week. Middle schoolers understand water balloons;
- At the Big Spring in Missouri youth groups floating the Current River discovered what it meant when Jesus said holy life welled up like a spring of living water;
- One church member served on the regional Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) for a governmental environmental (water and land) cleanup as a witness to his faith;
- A youth in one church got so excited about clean water for the world that she led us in mission trips to provide clean water in several parts of the world;
- After a particularly inspiring devotion by a friend about “loving the world one watershed at a time” I discovered a statewide program that invited volunteers to test the water in nearby streams and creeks to gather important information about pollution and clean water;
- One of our church’s Church of the Wild Sunday services included kayaking with emphasis on the adventure and renewal a well-watered faith often brings;
What more can be utilized to bear witness to water and its holy work of life? Where better can we highlight clean water and our work in its service? How better to weave our responsibility for the cosmos into our everyday, devotional life? Clean water is precious, life-giving, and from God. May we care for it well!
Create in us clean hearts, O God. Renew a right Spirit within us.
Restore us to the joy of our salvation. —Psalm 51
Gregory Waldrop is a retired elder in the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference and co-chair for the conference’s Creation Care Ministry Team. He regularly monitors the watershed in his area of Kentucky and extends invitations to others to appreciate and care for water.