Water is the source of life. This concept struck me profoundly as I flew to the west coast for the first time in my life this past weekend. I sat with my nose pretty much glued to the window for the last hour of the trip as we flew over Utah, Nevada, and California. What I saw was miles and miles and miles of completely uninhabited land in an overpopulated world and in a country that is currently debating the problem of immigration. So why is this land unpopulated? Granted, some of it is preserved as national parks, but mostly it is unpopulated because there is no water. What I saw from the plane was beautiful, but it mostly was rock and dirt with very little evidence of vegetation. I saw shades of russet and white and black, but no green, no trees that I could make out. Interestingly enough, during my morning commute this week I listened to a series on NPR about the struggle over water in the west, primarily focusing on the conflicting needs of rural and urban areas, especially the massive amounts of water used in Las Vegas. The main source of water for the region is the Colorado River, with its reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell. What I learned in listening to that series is that there is also water in that area in deep underground aquifers. Where that water springs up to the surface, life blooms in the desert. Little pocket communities develop around these sources of water.

Water is the source of life. We use it in baptism to symbolize our new life in Christ. We use it at funerals symbolize our being born into eternal life. We go through the desert of lent for forty days, only to renew our baptismal vows and be sprinkled with the water of life for the next fifty days. We use water to bless ourselves and our lives. Deserts also play a role in our spiritual life. We experience desert times, times where we wander as the Israelites did, unable to recognize God working in our lives. We experience the parched desert times when we thirst for God as did the psalmists:

Like a deer yearns for living streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. (Ps. 42:2)

At the same time, the desert is a place we voluntarily go, as did Jesus, to pray. In the early church there was a strong tradition of desert fathers and mothers who went out into the desert to live, to pray, and to be with God. The desert is a place where we can be alone with God, and in that solitude, come to recognize our thirst for God, our absolute dependence on God, and come to know more intimately the One who is the source of our life. Jesus offers us "a spring of water welling up to eternal life," (Jn. 4:14) so that we will no longer thirst. Water is sacramental. The next time we get a drink of water or wash our hands or dip our hands into the baptismal water fonts as we enter a church, the next time we turn a faucet and water comes pouring out, let us be thankful that we have water, that we have life, and most of all that we have a relationship with the one who is the source of all life.