Water

We've started a little bit of a heat wave where I live, and as I went to get my umpteenth glass of water today, it struck me that a few of Christ's titles (thinking particularly of the Living Water and the Bread of Life) make symbols of things we can't live without. We can't go long without eating, and we can survive even less long without drinking. The symbolic meaning is fairly obvious: Just as our physical lives depend on food and water, our spiritual lives depend on Jesus Christ.

Also notable is that we need to eat and drink regularly in order to stay healthy. One cannot parch themselves for several weeks and then drink a month's worth of water to make up for it, and even if one could drink a month's worth of water without exploding, that wouldn't mean that they could then go weeks before having to drink again. Drinking water should be a regular, multiple-times-daily experience, especially when we exert ourselves and/or when the weather's warm. Similarly, we should come unto Jesus Christ regularly and frequently, especially in times of trial.

Considering how frequently and how much we need to drink water, it makes sense for God to have chosen such a symbol for Jesus Christ. And the symbolic symmetry doesn't stop there. The purity of drinking water can represent the spiritual purity (sinlessness) of Jesus Christ. Water can also remind us of the many times water was used prominently in the scriptures: The waters of Noah, the parting of the Red Sea, Christ's baptism, that time when an Old Testament prophet (I forget which one) challenged the priests of some other God (baal, I think) to call down fire from heaven, the washing of the Apostles' feet, and the calling forth of water from a rock, just to name a few. Perhaps the ubiquitousness of water in the scriptures and in our daily lives is meant to be somewhat self-referential, with each story linked to each other using water as the common theme, and giving us a necessary reminder of all those stories and moments when we drink our umpteenth daily glass of water.

I don't have much reason to be thankful for this heat wave, but I am thankful for water and all it does and represents. Water is one of the most wonderful substances in the world. With its power and purity and essentiality for life, water makes an excellent symbol for Jesus Christ.