All of CreationSample

Fresh Water: Our Most Precious and Scarce Resource

Picture a waterfall running over towers of rock. Mist rises in the sunlight, casting rainbows around the falls. Or imagine waking up during a thunderstorm, as the rain sprays against your window like God is aiming His garden hose at your house. Water is breathtaking and awe-inspiring, but there’s not enough of it for everyone who needs it.

It’s easy to take water for granted. Anytime you want it, you can get it from the kitchen sink. We wash our hands with it, take showers in it, and even keep it in the toilet. It rains from the sky, runs along in rivers, and fills lakes, ponds, and puddles. It seems like it’s always available, but not having access to clean water is one of the most urgent environmental issues in the world today.

Most of the water on the planet is salt water, meaning it’s undrinkable. The oceans and seas all contain salt water, leaving only 3 percent of the earth’s water fresh. Even with the limits on our fresh water supply (it’s only 1 percent of the water in the world!), the real challenge is getting fresh water to everyone who needs it. More than two billion people lack access to safe drinking water.

When we see a community in need of fresh water, we have an opportunity to show that community what God is like. In the book of Matthew, Jesus said that when we offer a cup of water to someone in need, it’s as if we were giving the Messiah Himself a drink (25:37–40). Jesus is very serious about taking care of people’s physical needs, and we should be too. God invites you and me to participate in providing fresh water for His people, and when we do, we can be confident that we are becoming more like Christ.

As we learn in Genesis 1:2, while creation was still empty and formless, God’s Spirit was “hovering over the face of the waters.” God had a plan for water to take care of all life on earth. Amazingly, every water molecule God created in the beginning is still a part of the water cycle today! Around the planet, water evaporates, condenses into clouds, then falls back to the earth as rain or snow. This natural circulation of water connects the seas and rivers with the forests, grasslands, wetlands, and deserts.

It also connects them to you and me. Water is the foundational force—the initial ingredient through which the rest of creation was built—that binds each ecosystem to another. Without it, life would fail. When we pollute our water or use too much of it, we mess with the systems God set in place to give and support life.

Humans aren’t just dependent on the water around us. We’re connected to the earth by the water inside us too! Our bodies contain around 60 percent water, and our brain cells are about 85 percent water. We literally can’t think without it. We can’t survive more than several days without drinking it. It’s how we naturally cool our bodies through sweat and how we express emotion through tears. God designed us to need water. It’s pretty incredible to think God created our bodies with water, to continually need water, and to get water from His creation.

Scripture shows us that it matters to God that people have clean water to drink. In the book of Exodus, God caused water to gush forth from a rock in the wilderness. God made it possible for Jacob to buy some land and build a well to supply water to his community—a well that was famous hundreds of years later when Jesus walked the earth. God gives us so much more than just the water we drink. He takes care of us spiritually too!

When we consider what a gift water is—a life-giving, satisfying, make-us-clean-again gift—we see how important it is for us to take good care of our water sources and supplies. We can’t take water for granted or assume that everyone has it just because we do. God gives us good gifts like water because He knows we need it, but also so we can share those gifts with others so they’ll know Him too! It’s our job as God’s followers to make sure everyone has clean, accessible water.