REFLECTIONS on the THEME:

Water is one of the essential elements of life. It has power to destroy life and power to give life. Water can come as a raging flood and destroy entire communities. It can come as a gentle rain and bring forth bountiful harvests that feed millions. Clean water is a more basic need than food. Nothing can survive, grow and flourish without water.

Water is also a powerful symbol in the Christian community. The waters of baptism symbolize the gift of God's grace, the forgiveness of sin, rising to new life in Christ and our welcome into the household of faith. The waters of baptism bind us together as Christians and make us "one with whole people of God."

Water is also a rich biblical image. Water is a sign of hospitality to the stranger and sojourner. Water brings life to those who wander in the wilderness. Water cleanses and purifies those who would present themselves before God. Water is a symbol of renewal and new life. Water is a symbol of salvation itself, as Jesus tells the woman at the well, "Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." (John 4:14)

For the prophet Isaiah, an abundance of water symbolized God's promise of new and abundant life. "For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water . . . " (Isaiah 35:6b-7a)

In Isaiah's prophetic vision, those who thirst will be satisfied, and God's people will become living waters for others. Isaiah is clear that the worship God truly desires is a life that actively shares God's gifts with others and strives to make the world a place where all peoples share in the blessings of God's creation.

"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them? . . . If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom as noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail." (Isaiah 58:6-7,9b-11)

As people who have received God's blessings, we are called to be a blessing. Jesus says, "let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink . . . Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water." (John 7:37b-38)

In this year's Week of Compassion poster, water flows over and through human hands. Indeed, Week of Compassion is a channel for our gifts of living water. Through Week of Compassion our gifts may literally be clean, fresh water, such as a well for students in Kenya or a village in El Salvador; a water catchment system for a school in the Marshall Islands; an irrigation system in Senegal; even bottled water for hurricane survivors in North Carolina. Our gifts provide water purification tablets for refugees from Sudan or well purification teams to returnees in Kosovo. Our gifts of living water may take the form of education assistance for ethnic minority children in Laos, food for malnourished children in North Korea, relief supplies for earthquake survivors in Turkey, pastoral care assistance to victims of violence in East Timor, building supplies for Honduran villagers who continue to recover from Hurricane Mitch, hay and grain for drought stricken farmers in Kentucky, or a micro credit program for women starting small businesses in Bolivia. Through Week of Compassion, North American Disciples let the gifts of God they have received flow out into the world to enrich the lives of all God's children.