The water of death

http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/ministry/theology/the_symbolism_of_baptism/

[sydneyanglicans.net] 30 May 2009--Water is the symbol of life and death.

Some symbols are hard to understand, some are arbitrary but this symbol has immediate and obvious impact - especially to a dry continent like Australia. It works as a symbol because it creates the reality that it symbolises.

Without water our country slowly dies in drought. And yet when the rains come, the rivers swell and the lakes turn from saltpans into inland seas. In next to no time the desert springs to life with luscious green vegetation, the lakes team with fish and the birds come from seemingly nowhere to nest in huge numbers.

But it is more than the countryside that needs water. We humans depend upon it for our very lives. We drink it to live. It is a constituent of all that we drink. Without it our thirst is painful and killing. With it we slake our thirst and revive our body.

Water is the symbol not only of life but also of cleanliness. For it is in water that we wash the grime of life off our bodies. So when we need to purify the defilement of our lives - water is again an obvious symbol to turn to. Just as it removes dirt from the body so it also symbolises washing dirt from our lives.