Living waters

I finally emptied the water I brought from Troy into the General Assembly's collection of water that is being used each meeting as a reminder of our theme, “Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living waters.” As some of you may recall, I solicited your thoughts on what water to bring. I ended up going down to the Miami River on Thursday night prior to my leaving. It was a bit muddy, so Rachel and I slipped our way down the riverbank. Thank goodness for the two men fishing who helped me back up from the river (the Crocs I wore were not the best choice).
Admittedly, I was in rush since I had waited until the eve of my departure before getting the water.

As I scrambled to figure out how to carry the water in my carry-on bag (I had sent my big bag with our Executive Presbyter had driven up earlier in the week), I stumbled upon the little plastic container that I had used for communion juice earlier that week. When I filled the container with river water, it took on a pink tinge as remnants of the juice that remained in the container blended with the river water. At first, I wondered why I hadn't cleaned the container better; but, upon reflection I realized that this was the perfect sacramental blend – juice from communion and water symbolizing baptism.

All week the container with the water sat on a table in my hotel room. At first, its presence was a reminder that I had forgotten to turn it in at registration. Then, I began to reflect on how our sacraments are at the heart of how we understand ourselves as God's children – claimed by God in the waters of baptism and given the gift of Christ's death and resurrection by God, both of which we discover by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Friday, as the assembly neared its end, they announced a final chance to bring our water forward to be poured into the water being used by the assembly. Even as I was grateful for the chance to do what I had neglected to do previously, I felt a little possessive about giving up the water that had become a symbol for me in my hotel room and during my time at General Assembly. Nevertheless, I rushed to my hotel room over the dinner break, brought the water back, invited one of the other commissioners from our presbytery to go with me, and we went forward to pour the water into the larger pitcher. There the water from the Miami River co-mingled with water from other places around our country. It has already been used (or will be tomorrow) and now I have an empty container to bring home with me.

Peace,

Richard