Water

 

Growing up in the middle of the state where lakes just always freeze, I’d never give a thought to the idea of waves lapping against the shoreline as the mercury dips well below freezing until we moved here. Today, though, I found myself mesmerized by the vast expanses of ice off Tofte Park, the ice heaves standing almost like frozen wave crests, ice-covered rocks like fantastic sculptures. In our time on the north shore, I’d not seen the entire western half of the lake freeze over until today.

One of the most amazing things about this planet is its relationship with water. Earth is the only place in our solar system, and perhaps in the entire galaxy, where water can exist simultaneously in all three of its forms – ice, liquid water, and water vapor.

I’m reminded as I gaze across the ice with my furry companion pulling on his leash to get back home, that somewhere there is a waterfall flowing through a lush tropical forest, that elsewhere plumes of water vapor are rising above vast oceans. In the microcosm of the moment, I can hear the liquid water gurgling beneath the ice, and see the water vapor of my breath crystallizing in the air in front of me.

I think the church has tended to devalue water somewhat. It’s seen as ordinary and plain. But really it’s amazing. It, more than any other substance, defines life on earth. Water stores heat better than most any other liquid. Water uniquely makes ice that floats rather than sinks, protecting aquatic life from winter’s cold. Water has been called the universal solvent, its molecular structure allows it to bind to most molecules.

On the smallest of scales, it transports food and waste through our bloodstreams and into and out of our cells. On a much larger scale, the water cycle quenches the thirst of humans, plants, and animals alike. Civilizations have arisen due to the abundance of water or fallen due to drought. We used to think the solution to pollution was dilution, but when the polluted Cuyahoga River burst into flames in the 1960s that logic was proven false. We’ve learned we must take care of this God-given resource. So we’ve protected it and vast tracts of wilderness like the BWCA that contain it.

As a society, we’ve grown to see clean water as even more important than gold, copper, or nickel. We rightly struggle to prevent contamination of it from crude oil pipelines, airborne mercury, selenium from coal slurry ponds, or lead pipes.

As Christians, God calls us into his family through the water of baptism. Whether poured or sprinkled or dunked all the way under, water is a symbol or sign of His saving grace. We Lutherans believe that connected with the Word of God in Christian community, the waters of baptism are indeed the reality of that grace. I’ve baptized in this big lake – at the mouth of the Cross River. I thought about the picture John the Baptist created when his baptism of repentance symbolized the washing away of the people’s sins down the Jordan and into the sea.

God is a God of mercy and grace made beautifully simple in water. As I stood looking out across this lake, I found myself thinking about my baptism – remembering the little baptism candle my parents lit once a year until it got so small it couldn’t be lit anymore, the community of Christian men and women who nurtured my faith as I grew. I thought about my own children’s baptisms and the banners that they have hanging on their bedroom walls that remind them that they are each a “Child of God.” I remembered how we renewed our baptismal covenants in the small stream flowing through the ruins of Philippi in Greek Macedonia where Paul baptized Lydia. The memories washed over me like water.

This lake, with 10 percent of the world’s fresh water and some of the most beautiful wilderness in the world bordering its shores, is a beautiful picture of God’s creative beauty, of His care and provision, of His call to action as men and women of faith, and, from frozen to free, of the new life He offers in Christ – proclaimed in baptism.

Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This week our contributor is Daren Blanck, pastor of Zoar Church in Tofte, a teacher at William Kelley High School and a student of Beyond the River Academy, a ministry program of Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ.