My little kitchen garden in cow lick pots is such a source of joy to me. I picked a few tomatoes, two cucumbers, and a few sprigs of mint for lunch today. It’s such a wonder of life how we plant a few seeds, nurture and water them, and we’re rewarded with a harvest. It’s been a hard year for vegetables at my house, rain and more rain. And when the daily rains stopped a furiously hot summer sun began baking the earth. I’ve been petting my vegetables and watering them. My random zinnias from last year’s dropped seeds are beautiful. The heat and extra rain hasn’t bothered them. The zinnia dance stages are beautifully colored and the butterflies are tap dancing gloriously on them.

As I look out my bedroom window I see the bamboo are dancing in the wind of a distant thunderstorm. I hope this time the purple clouds empty themselves in my yard but I think it’s going around us. I’ve watched my peace lily plants faint from the heat but a good splashing of water on their leaves and roots brings them back to life. Think about this — there is no life if there’s no water.

Bible scripture uses water to refer to God and his ability to refresh us. John 4:14 reads, “But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Continuing in John we read in Chapter 7, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” Jesus is the living water that nourishes our souls when we accept God and his teachings.

Water is a powerful symbol for Christians, representing purification and new life. Water mirrors our faith and God’s grace during a baptism as we’re cleansed from sin and begin a Christian life. Water is also a reminder of God’s power and judgement. He cleaned the earth with a biblical flood but promised with his rainbow to never destroy the world with water again.

Isaiah compares God’s words to rain and snow. “Just as the rain and the snow come down from the sky and do not return there unless they first water the earth, make it give birth, and cause it to sprout, so that it gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater, in the same way my word that goes out of my mouth will not return to me empty. Rather, it will accomplish whatever I please, and it will succeed in the purpose for which I sent it,” Isaiah 55:10-11. Just as the rain and snow nourish the earth, God’s words are powerful and life-giving, nourishing our spiritual faith.

Anchor you faith in the promises of God. He brings hope on the dark days. He’s a source of strength and a steadfast foundation during the storms of life.

“With God as the rock beneath me, no earthly storm can move me, for His strength is my anchor.” — Pensador