The Creation of Water
November 10, 2022
The Almighty God created water extraordinarily from the sky visible for the eyes of human beings. In scripted in the Holy Book bible as “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” Sky is the paint of water according to patristic fathers. (Genesis 1:6)
Water is a source of Life. Most of our daily life is based on the utilization of water. That is why from 70-75 percent of the earth is water. No human can survive without it. During the exodus of the Israel’s, the people were thirsted and hungered in their journey for they had no water to survive with. So then Prophet Mosses, fetched them water from striking the rock in the desert to produce water for the parched wanderers. (Numbers 20:11)
When we observe the story of the Samaritan women in Gospel of John, we understand that water is not just for thirst or worldly use but has more value. A Samaritan woman came to Jacob’s Well in Sychar, a Samaritan city, at the same time that Jesus sat down by the well, being wearied by His journey. “A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Lord Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” (John 4:6-15)
Lord Jesus is speaking of Living water that poured from the side of His body when was crucified. He was telling the woman the truth about Him being the savior of human beings and the whole world who was to be sacrificed upon the Holy Cross. It is stated as, “Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world” (John 4:42); and the water that was to pour from His side, would be the blessed water that Archpriests use to baptize people in the name of the Holy Son, Holy Father and Holy Spirit as Lord ordered the Saint Apostles saying “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19)
Saint John in his Gospel also indicates that under the image of water, Lord Jesus was speaking of to the gift of the Holy Spirit. He spoke of this truth in the crowds of the festival day, “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, ‘If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ Now this He said about the Spirit, Whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” [John 7:37-39].
Therefore, Lord Jesus’ living water is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity. The Samaritan woman, and all who know the word of God, Gospel and drink the living water that bestows eternal life. Saint John has said, “Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Water is resembled both for salvation or punishment; in the Old Testament we can comprehend its usage of which God punished gentiles as recounted in the story of Noah and the ark (Genesis 6). However, In the New Testament, water was the means by which the Trinity was revealed during the Baptism of Lord and Savior Jesus, which we celebrate on the Feast of Epiphany on January 19 (Tir 11) each year. In the Baptism of Lord Jesus at the hands of John the Baptist, the spiritual significance and potential of water as the source of life is again revealed and reaffirmed. Saint John Chrysostom says: “On this day Christ was baptized; through His Baptism He sanctified the element of water. There let us all draw of the water and store it in homes, because on this day the water is consecrated.” (The Discourse of Theophany)
Christians use water as alms giving for poor as well. On the commemoration of Saints day, they serve food and water in the name of Holy fathers, Saints and Martyrs they believe in and love dearly seeking their intercession. Just as Lord Jesus said, “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.” (Matthew 10:40-42)
May God cleanse us in His holy water and bestow us mercy, Amen!