Environmental Stewardship Commission (MEESC)

Water in Scripture

Water as a great power

Full of majesty:
Psalm 93:
⁴ More majestic than the thunders of mighty waters,
more majestic than the waves † of the sea,
majestic on high is the LORD!

Ability to control it a sign of God’s power, and of Jesus
Psalm 65:
⁷ You silence the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves,
Matthew 8:
²³ And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him.
²⁴ A windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep.
²⁵ And they went and woke him up, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”
²⁶ And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm.
²⁷ They were amazed, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?” (NRSV)

Noah
Parting the Red Sea
Water in the Wilderness at Meribah

Properties of Water
H₂O, made of two hydrogen and an oxygen
3 forms
Water is the only substance that occurs at ordinary temperatures in all three states of matter: Solid, Liquid, Gas
Ice: Glaciers and ice caps, on water surfaces in winter, as snow, hail, frost and clouds
Liquid: Rain clouds dew. Covers ¾ of the earth’s surface in swamps, lakes, rivers, and oceans.
Gas, or water vapor it occurs as fog, steam, and clouds.

Expansion on freezing
Water attains its maximum density at a temperature of 4⁰ C (39⁰ F)
Without this characteristic, Minnesota would be a very different place, one nearly devoid of fish, turtles, frogs, and many other forms of aquatic life.
Ice Nine

Solvent
Because most substance are somewhat soluble in water, it is frequently called the universal solvent
Seawater contains, in addition to concentrated amounts of salt, many other soluble compounds carried down to it by rivers and streams.
It acts as a catalyst for many important chemical reactions

In addition, water is good at holding things in suspension. Thus mud and dirt and many things that don’t actually dissolve in water can still be carried downstream by it.

Water is indeed a great and varied blessing in our lives.

Theme: How we are blessed by the natural world.
Animals, Plants, and now Water.

Water blesses us with its cleansing

• Baptism
• New life:
• Swim below the surface and pop up in a new place.

Lake Superior Sailing Walking on the shore Ocean Streams Congdon Park

Water also blesses us with its sounds

• Rushing rapids
• Crashing Surf
• Cracking of the ice
• Eerie pinging running off across the lake
• Babbling brook
• Lapping Waves

Source of life
Deuteronomy 11:
¹¹ But the land that you are crossing over to occupy is a land of hills and valleys, watered by rain from the sky,
¹² a land that the LORD your God looks after. (NRSV)

Water in life
Major component of living matter

• 50 to 90% by weight of living organisms

• Water acts as a solvent, transporting combining, and chemically breaking down these substances.
• Water also plays a key role in the metabolic breakdown of such essential molecules as proteins and carbohydrates. This process goes on continually in our cells.

• Life as we know it, anyway.
• Interesting to think about whether life can exist in some entirely different form, based on, say, mercury.
• But for us, life in impossible without water
• A person can fast for several weeks and survive, as long as he has water. But without water he will last only a few days.

• Animals are essential for life.
• Plants are essential for life.
• Water is essential for life.
• We are part of an interdependent web in which we are utterly dependent upon the other parts for our survival, just as we are utterly dependent upon God who creates and sustains. The One who charges us with the care of beautiful, powerful, life-giving water.

Let us give thanks today for the blessings bestowed on us by God through water:

• The bright blue vistas laced with whitecaps
• The soft rain nourishing the fields
• The gentle babble of brook and fountain
• Ice to skate on, snow to ski on
• And ultimately the gift of life itself.

NOTE:  Some of the above information taken from  Encarta Microsoft Corp. Version 1995.

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