Sunday, October 18, 2026
Sunday Reflection: On the water
There is something that has long fascinated me about the Gospels: They are set in a desert, but so many of the key moments involve a body of water in one way or another. Jesus calls his first disciples from their fishing boat. He is baptized in a river. He performs a miracle by walking on water. Even at the very end, after the crucifixion, he appears to his followers once again on the water.
That's not even to mention the scenes that center on water in other ways: his first miracle was turning water into wine, and his longest reported encounter was with a woman drawing water from a well.
A lot of it, I think, is the role water plays in a desert culture-- it is especially precious. Being near a body of water is something that is nearly universal in most human cultures, and the need for drinking water is genuinely universal. Perhaps it is a way that Jesus connects to us all, across diverse cultures and many centuries, a centering element that allows us to imagine ourselves there.
Shorelines, too, are those magical places where the known and unknown meet, where the land where we can survive meets the water where we cannot. Jesus pulls us to that existential border-- where, sometimes, we need to be.
