Connecting with Creation: Walking in Water

We begin our life walking in the water of our mother’s womb. Seventy per cent of our bodies is water. In baptism we are again born of water and the Spirit. All the water on Earth is recycled. Ultimately we have shared the same raindrops as Moses or Jesus. We wade in the waters of life from conception to cremation.

How do we become aware of the spiritual dimension of water? We survive because of the waters of life, every day. Yet we are often oblivious to this life force within us and around us, God present in the waters of life.

One exercise that may increase our spiritual awareness of the power of water in our lives is to visit a local stream or river at a chosen place where we can stand in the water as a group. As the water washes over our feet we reflect first on the sources of the water flowing around us: springs, rain, clouds, oceans, the moist breath of God.

We then reflect on the water within us, water we breathe, taste and drink to stay alive.

Then we may reflect on the journey of the water after it flows downstream and into the sea. Part of that reflection may include the mystery of life in the water, both in the rivers and the seas. There are many more species of life deep in the ocean than there are on land. We may also consider how the clear waters of life are so quickly polluted with refuse, chemicals and human waste.

A simple rite of renewal is to take a small branch, dip it in the water and sprinkle it over the heads of the participants, who all share birth by water and the Spirit. The key to this awareness experience is to recall not only our baptism but that, when God became a human being, God was also born of water and continues to be a living presence in water.

The group may also wish to reflect on the words of The Song of Waters in Habel Hymns One. The closing verse reads:

Feel the breath of God move softly
gentle mists across the skin;
Earth is breathing God’s own spirit,
life renewed from deep within.
Sing a song of living waters,
pulsing through the veins of Earth.
Melody: Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven