Lenten Reflection - Day 8: by Fred & Sandra Wisch

READING: Psalm 46

Water is vital to life! We spent the first nine months of our life growing in water. We are told to drink eight glasses of water daily. It is the best and most refreshing drink out there. We buy it by the case, and carry it with us wherever we go.

What is the importance of water to us as Christians in this time we call Lent? Consider this—Without the waters of our Baptism, and the words of God’s blessing, we would not have the forgiveness of our sins, and new life in Jesus Christ that marks us as Christians.

In Martin Luther’s Small Catechism we read that Baptism is not water only, but it is water used together with God’s Word and by His command. In Matthew 28, our Lord Jesus Christ says: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” Luther goes on to say that in Baptism God forgives sin, delivers from death and the devil and gives everlasting salvation to all who believe what He has promised.

It is not water that does these things, but God’s Word with the water and our trust in this Word. Water by itself is only water, but with the Word of God it is a life-giving water which by grace gives the new birth through the Holy Spirit. St. Paul writes in Romans 6: “We were buried therefore with Him by Baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

As I shower each day, I use the warm, invigorating waters of the shower as a symbol of my baptism and of my Lord Jesus continuing love and care for me. May these thoughts on Baptism be meaningful to you as you contemplate this season of Lent.