W is for WATER

I love water. It's my favourite drink. Still or sparkling, it hits the parts other drinks can't reach and it's nice to always have it on tap. Water has also become a more socially acceptable drink among those who prefer something a little bit stronger in a way that orange or apple juice have not, especially when it is ordered by its brand name rather than a plain old glass of water. And it's multi-functional. Hot water for making tea and coffee, boiling for vegetables, rice and pasta, add it to powdered or canned soups, mix it with juices, poach eggs in it, use it as ice. When you move out of the kitchen it becomes a liquid for washing clothes, ourselves, bathing, swimming, flushing the toilet, watering flowers, killing weeds and insects when mixed with chemicals, cleaning the car and the windows and a home for fish and other semi-aquatic animals.

I knew something wasn't quite right. You see water wasn't meant to drip from the kitchen light bulb in the centre of the ceiling. Knowing the bathroom was directly above did nothing to ease mum's worry but it certainly quickened my steps up the stairs. The water in the bath was higher than it had ever been before, or lower , if you consider that it was now leaking through the floorboards to the room below. I pulled out the plug, turned off the taps and the bath level slowly began to drop but the damage had already been done and I knew that it was my fault.

I knew something wasn't quite right. You see water wasn't meant to drip form the living room light bulb. Knowing that the bathroom was at the other end of the house, I was confused, until I remembered the radiator and it certainly quickened my steps up the stairs. But the radiator was working perfectly, even though there was a small pool of water nearby. As we had no cat or dog, I wasn't even slightly suspicious but still concerned. Then I remembered the rain that had battered the house all evening and upon closer examination, discovered a small wet trace leading from a leaky window, down the wall behind the radiator and flowing into the small lake on the floor. But the damage had already been done and I knew it was my fault.

We can't do without water and though we complain about summers like this year, every drop will be useful and is needed. But a mass of water can be devastating. It can flood fields, roads and houses, causes landslides, wipe out whole villages, like the Tsunami did, harbour vermin and their diseases, sink ships and claim lives. And isn't it uncanny that while too little of it can kills us in the desert, too much of the same thing can kill us in a lake or a river. The truth is water has absolutely no intelligence, but sometimes we show little more in our understanding of its power.

She knew something wasn't quite right. You see, no matter how much water you drink, you still get thirsty again. And what's the point in coming to a deep well to get a drink if you don't have a bucket and a long rope. Unless of course you don't need the well anymore because the water never leaves you and then you're never thirsty. Like God's spirit, living inside you. That's why Jesus said, 'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.' Living Water? Now that is the spirit to live by.