The Memory of WaterCurated for the Progressive Christian Networkby Cheryl LawrieJuly 2008

The whole world is inhabited with the presence of God.That isn’t what makes a space sacred.

It becomes sacred when you can be different there -

when you can bring the parts of you that strive to move beyond the mundane-ness of the everydayto find new hope, new promise, new freedom.

When you can bring the darkest, loneliest parts of your soulthat long for wholeness and compassionand place them alongside the story of life.

Welcome.

This space is yours to do with as you will.

Move around to the stations as you would likeStay at one, if you would prefer, or visit them all.Stay for 2 minutes, stay for an hour.

There’s no right or wrong way to be here.

The memory of water

God promised there would never again be a flood that would destroy all the world

…and yet every day we hear stories of those whose whole world is devastated

by floods or war or illness.

We hear the stories of desolation from those we are in ministry with and our hearts ache with them.

And maybe we wonder why God cannot - or does not - stop it happening.

We wish the world were different, and maybe we wish God were different.

Add salt to the water...let it be tears for those you know whose lives are flooded with grief and devastationand for those who have no-one to cry for them

Add salt to the water...let it be tears for the grief that sometimes God is notwho we would want God to be.

What memory does this water hold…

Can it tell a story of seeping through rocks, inside the earth, for a millenniaor being frozen inside a glacier for centuries?

Has it been one dropin a literal oceanwashing relentlessly against the rocks of ancient landformsshaping the earth as we now know it?

Has it quenched the thirst of a parched desertand flooded whole countries with devastating waves?

Has it rained on the just and the unjust?

Has it been cried in tears of reliefjoylonelinessdespairby our ancestors a thousand years ago,and their ancestors ten thousand before?

Has it birthed the babies of our neighboursand washed the bodies of their dead?

God promised there would never again be a flood that would destroy all the world

…and yet every day we hear stories of those whose whole world is devastated

by floods or war or illness.

We hear the stories of desolation from those we are in ministry with and our hearts ache with them.

And maybe we wonder why God cannot or does not stop it happening.

We wish the world were different, and maybe we wish God were different.

If the water holds historyʼs stories of faithfulness, resilience, fragility, tragedy, ecstasy, it can hold all of your story too.

Write what you need to tell today into the water with your finger.

Remember when the water called you,when you could no more resist its callthan forget to breathe.

Remember when you would willingly drown in the waterbecause the life it would givewas worth dying for

or because you knewyou could only find lifethrough drowning.

God promised there would never again be a flood that would destroy all the world

…and yet every day we hear stories of those whose whole world is devastated

by floods or war or illness.

We hear the stories of desolation from those we are in ministry with and our hearts ache with them.

And maybe we wonder why God cannot or does not stop it happening.

We wish the world were different, and maybe we wish God were different.

If you remember the call -

or if you long to remember –

mark the back of your hand with the sign of a cross…

It is easy to be thirstywhen the water is everywherewhen the world is covered with itwhen everywhere we look, God is.

But sometimesit seems the water dries up

and when the cracks appearin the soil of our faithwe cover them overwith anything we can find, until even we forgetthe thirst that lies underneath.

We no longer wait for rainand the underground rivers are drying up…

Sometimes faith is having confidence that rain will fall again Sometimes it’s knowing where water is to be found And sometimes it’s just having the courage to be here

cracked empty and arid

Taste some of the salt...

where are the parts of your life and ministry where the water has disappeared?

Take some of the water and drink it...

where is the water that sustains you and quenches your thirst?