I would like to feature a guest author in this month’s column. She is a 17-year-old aspiring writer named Addisyn Eggar. I believe you will agree with me that she has some very meaningful thoughts about God and life. — Rick Malone

By Addisyn Eggar

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” (Genesis 1:1–2, ESV).

From the beginning, God and water have been closely intertwined, mysteriously described and exhibited throughout Holy Scripture. Water is integral to the story of Scripture and therefore to humanity, for Scripture is our story, even before time. Yet, water is one of the greatest paradoxes in all of creation. Water is what energizes and sustains the body, and yet it is feared for the destructive chaos and unknown element it brings into the world. Water is life-giving and life-seizing, refreshing and razing, cleansing and consuming, soothing and subduing. Water is unknown, yet vital to all things living.

The power of this mysterious element in the hands of God as a cleanser, sustainer and destroyer has always been used to show His character and control over all of creation. God shows His might and character in floods, purifying His own, and refreshing those who are His, all using water. Water is an element of reflection God has given humanity so that we may better understand Him, and a medium which He uses to cleanse His children from their sins.

Jesus performs many miracles with water throughout the gospels, but the story that first came to mind when I thought of water in the Bible was not a miracle at all—at least, not one like Lazarus being raised from the dead or Jesus banishing demons and sending them to inhabit a herd of pigs. No, this story is one where the reader sees Jesus on His knees washing the feet of his disciples. The powerful story, told in John 13, of the Lord of all creation cleaning the fouled and odorous feet of His disciples exhibits water’s refreshing power and significance.

The Son of God works water so that His own may be purified. The mystery of God’s character is also present as seen when Peter asks, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” (John 13:6, ESV), and Jesus replies, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand” (John 13:7 ESV). Through the cleansing power of water, the mystery of God’s power is exhibited, and its necessity is made clear when Jesus goes on to say, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me” (John 13:8 ESV). Maybe then, the scene is a miracle, as water, in the hands of Jesus, gains a saving and cleansing power.

This story, however, is not the only and by no means the first story to showcase the power of water when used by God. One of the earliest times God used water as a cleanser was not quite as gentle as Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. Genesis 6–8 tells of a flood sent by God to destroy the unrighteous and cleanse His world. Water is a tool of cleansing in this story as well, but by way of destruction. Water reflects God’s nature, and God, loving and omnipotent as He is, is not tame. He is slow to anger, but when angry, He is a force of righteous indignation upon those who have offended Him. Water is the perfect representation of that force. Water can erode slowly at a rock, it can be a steady drip that shapes and forms, or it can come in a tsunami that clears away everything in its path. And yet God, amidst the flood of His anger, was faithful to His own. He brought all who listened to His words and boarded Noah’s Ark safely through the storm and onto dry land, but for those who mocked Him, the ark became their judgment. Water is saving, as seen in Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet, but also deadly, as exhibited in the flood. Water, however, is God’s medium and reflection in both. It is mysterious, capable of utter destruction, cleansing and saving, just as God is.

Another way water can be seen as a medium and representation of God’s character is in the story of the woman at the well in John chapter 4. First, Jesus asks for a drink from the well, which again points to the sustaining nature of water. But then, after the woman inquires as to why a Jew would ask for water from a Samaritan such as herself, Jesus states, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10 ESV). It is in this encounter that we are able to see who Jesus truly is and what it means for us that Jesus is the living water. The water that reflects God’s character is just that—a reflection. Water sustains man temporarily, cleanses us temporarily, but Jesus, the living water, is, “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14 ESV).

The thirst we experience as human beings is to point us to our ultimate thirst for Christ, which is why water is the medium through which we can be cleansed and quenched or destroyed. Joseph J. Breunig wrote in a poem titled “Rooted and Grounded” that he is, “Planted by the river of Living Waters . . . rooted and grounded in Christ.” As Christians, we are to be cross-shaped trees sustained by Him who is the living water. We are to feed on the assurance that God is a sustaining and steadfast God above all, though powerful and capable of destruction. But that is the nature of water. That is the nature of living water. It is the truth that Jesus is the living water that makes His outpouring of blood and water from His pierced side on the cross so vitally important to the story of salvation. Water and blood, life and death, resurrection. The outpouring of Jesus’ Spirit, the Spirit of God, who was hovering over the face of the waters in Genesis, now spillled for all of humanity, communion and baptism flowing from Christ’s body.

The best way water is seen as God’s medium is in the institution of baptism. Water becomes the mode by which we enter into God’s kingdom and begin to understand the God we serve. Water, with its healing, cleansing, calming, destructive, erosive and mysterious qualities points us to living water—water, which we fear, love and need. From the destructive cleansing of the flood in Genesis and salvation of God’s people, to Jesus purifying His disciples’ feet, to Him revealing Himself as the living water to the lowly Samaritan woman at the well, water is the medium through which we see God. It is only natural then, that water is what sets Christians apart and names us children of God in Baptism. Baptism is a naming ceremony where God moves through water to make us His own. Baptism is the culmination of all that God uses water for. He floods over our sin, cleanses our being, and sustains us with water that reflects His character transformed into living water by the life-changing words, “in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, amen.”