As you know, Baxter has this thing for drinking from the spigot in the bath tub. He sits on the edge of the tub patiently waiting for me to walk by the door, so that he can call me into the bathroom to turn on the spigot for his drink. He places his head under the stream and drinks the water that rolls off of his head onto the tub floor. Of course, this means that the gets quite wet from the whole maneuver, but he obviously thinks it’s worth it. He keeps coming back for more. He doesn’t see a problem. I, on the other hand, have a problem with the aftermath of Baxter’s hydration technique.
I try to wait until he is finished with his slurping up the H2O, so that I can stop him before the big splash. If I’m alert and quick, I can pin him down and dry him off with a towel before he sets off on his merry way. However, if I miss his cue that he’s done with the drink, then I have to deal with the splashes on the floor, the walls, the rugs and anything else in shot of his vigorously shaking head. Sometimes I think he tries to fool me purposely, so that he can get a shot at me. When my back is turned, he leaps out of the tub, shakes and runs to escape my flurry of unpleasant words and the flying towel that follow. He has made it a game. Let’s see who can outsmart whom. Will Baxter be high and dry from the alpha cat’s Turkish towel off, or will I, and my surroundings, be wet and offended by his mischievous antics? At this point, I think the game is tied.
Our God plays with water as well. He separated the sea for the Israelites to escape Egypt. He brought water for the people from the rock in the desert. After the exile, Ezekiel speaks of God’s salvation as life-giving water flowing throughout Israel refreshing the land, and John the Baptist calls the people to repentance through his baptism in the Jordan. Finally, the risen Lord Jesus commissions His followers to baptize all nations “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Water is a common medium for God’s touching our lives and renewing them.
He used water when He first touched us with new life at our baptisms. Through this primal ritual of our Christian life, God gave us all the basic elements of faith—overcoming sin, identifying us as His children, commissioning us as priest, prophet and king to carry on God’s work in the world. Baptismal waters cleanse and give birth, and by recalling our baptisms, they replenish our spirits when we feel dried up and withered by the desert of our godless world today. “Never forget your baptism and its meaning for your life.” This is the message of Lent each year. We want it to wash over us again and again, so that it will soak into us and our way of living. Forgiven as sinners, loved as children, and commissioned as disciples set the landmarks in the Lenten landscape, and a river runs through this promised land like the Jordan river through the holy land. Its source is the waters of our baptisms into Christ’s life.
Don’t try to dry off too quickly from these waters. Too often we forget that we are baptized believers with a dignity and responsibility that is divine by adoption. We act like everyone else — arrogant, competitive, self-centered, self-indulgent, uncaring. We are called to be more. Wake up to who you are and what you can do in God’s name. Splash in the life giving waters where you died with Christ to rise with Him to new life. It’s God’s trick to save you and recreate the world through you. So what if you get a little wet. Just take a cue from Baxter and shake a little water on others to invite them to play along. That’s how the world is converted, not with crusades but with clever ways to invite others to take a drink, get a little wet, and enjoy how God saves us.
