Of the Life-Giving Stream Let Me Drink

Water! Approximately 71% of the Earth is covered with it. It’s also in the air, in the ground, and in glaciers. On average, an adult human is about 60% water, and the body weight of some organisms is as much as 90% water. We wash with it, swim in it, drink it, and cook with it. We flush it and run it down the drain and use it to grow our gardens. We even use it to produce electricity. And most of us never give a second thought (or even a first thought) to the amazing qualities of this life-sustaining chemical. From the beginning of time, we’ve understood the importance of water, so it’s really no surprise that water is mentioned in the Bible over 700 times, where it’s often described as “living.” In Genesis, we can see water was necessary from the beginning of God’s creation (Genesis 1). There was a “mist” from the land that watered the ground (Genesis 2:6), and “a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden” (Genesis 2:10). And references to water continue to flow throughout the scriptures. Fast forward to the last book of the Bible, and we still find water being mentioned. “For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:17) “And he said to me ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.'” (Revelation 21:6) “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” (Revelation 22:17)

Sure, we know that water is important and that we can’t live without it. From ancient times to the present, battles have been fought and are still being fought over water rights. Water supplies have been poisoned, rivers have been diverted, dammed, and flooded, and dams and irrigation systems have been destroyed in efforts to gain advantages over adversaries during wars and conflicts. But what is it about water that makes it so special? If we just consider humans for a second, think about all the functions of our bodies that require water. We need it to create saliva, protect our joints and spinal cord, help excrete wastes, improve metabolism and blood oxygen circulation, help with nutrient absorption, regulate body temperature, and even improve brain function and mood. So, yes, it’s necessary for life, but WHY is water the right substance for all of those roles? And HOW is it able to perform those jobs and so many more? After all, it’s colorless, odorless, and tasteless. Nothing exciting there. WHY is water the most important chemical compound for maintaining life?

To answer that question, we need to start with the chemical composition and the structure of a water molecule. Yes, water is a chemical, and I’m sure you know it is made up of the elements hydrogen and oxygen. Every water molecule consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom arranged in such a way that they form a sort of V-shaped molecule, with the oxygen atom at the vertex of the V. (Or you could think of a Mickey Mouse head and think of Mickey’s ears as the hydrogen atoms and the rest of his head as the oxygen atom.) I know, I know – still nothing exciting. Without getting too much more “science-y,” let me just add that this little V-shaped, Mickey Mouse head-shaped, molecule is said to be polar, sort of like the Earth is polar because it has its north and south magnetic poles. A water molecule, however, is polar because the oxygen end has a slightly negative electrical charge and the hydrogen end has a slightly positive electrical charge. I won’t go into detail about why water molecules have oppositely charged poles, but I will say that this is where the magic begins! The polar property of water contributes to all the life-sustaining characteristics of water – those same characteristics that Job recognized when he stated in Job 14:7-9, “For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put out branches like a young plant.”

You may be wondering, “Why was she just talking about electrical charges? I thought we were talking about water here.” We are! (If you are questioning whether or not water molecules have electrical charges, just rub a balloon on your hair to build up some static electricity on the balloon and then hold it next to a trickle of water from your faucet. Watch closely and you will see the stream of water being attracted to the balloon, even though the balloon never touched the water!) So all the water molecules in a tiny drop of water have a negatively charged side (pole) and a positively charged side. Now, what do you know about opposites? They attract! The negative side of one water molecule is attracted to the positive side of another water molecule, so water molecules really like each other. The attractive forces that cause them to “stick” together are known as hydrogen bonds, and these bonds give water molecules the property of cohesion and allow them to form droplets (like you can see in the photos below). But what in the world does that have to do with sustaining life, or making that tree bud that Job mentioned????

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For starters, the cohesion of water molecules is partly responsible for water being able to travel from the roots of a plant to the top of the stem and even for the drainage of tears from our eyes. The other property involved with those examples is adhesion, which occurs when water wants to “stick” to other things more than to itself. Have you ever put a stalk of celery or a jonquil in colored water and observed how the color makes its way to the very tops of the plants? This phenomenon is the result of cohesion and adhesion in action in the tiny vessels of the plant. Because water molecules are strongly attracted to the walls of the tiny vessels, they tend to creep up the insides of the vessels. But, because they are also still attracted to other water molecules, they drag their buddies along with them as they climb up the plant’s tiny tubes. This is known as capillary action, and it happens in spite of the force of gravity! (Since I have about a 2-inch vertical jump, anything that defies gravity is awesome to me.)

Cohesion of water molecules is also responsible for the surface tension of water, which allows the water strider (below) to glide all over the surface of a pond and also allows you to float a paper clip in a dish of water (if you happen to be inclined to do so). But, of course, water traveling upward through plants and tears draining and insects walking on water only scratch the surface of the reasons water is necessary for life. Water’s polarity and hydrogen bonding lead to several other impressive qualities besides cohesion!

One of these properties is that water heats up slowly and cools off slowly (has a very high heat capacity). Water has to absorb lots of energy before its temperature begins to rise. Have you ever raced across the hot sand at the beach so you could step into the cooler water? Then you’ve experienced the advantage of water’s high heat capacity! And why does water have a high heat capacity? The energy applied to raise water’s temperature, either in a pot on the stove or in a lake or ocean, first has to break those sticky hydrogen bonds between water molecules before it can work toward raising the temperature of water. Are you thinking “so what?” Then consider that percentage of water I mentioned earlier – that 60% that makes up humans and the even larger percentages in some organisms. Be grateful that water is resistant to rapid temperature changes when you go out into freezing temperatures or extremely hot conditions! Our bodies need to maintain a very specific temperature, and the high heat capacity and temperature stabilizing property of water helps them to do that.

This same property of water also helps regulate the climates of cities all over the world. Cities near oceans or large lakes tend to have less extreme temperature changes than inland areas, simply because the large bodies of water take a long time to heat and a long time to cool.

So what’s another special property of water that comes from it’s polarity and hydrogen bonding? Have you ever paid attention to the fact that ice cubes float in a glass of water? Then you probably realize that the frozen form of water is less dense than the liquid form. As water cools, the water molecules begin to move more slowly and hydrogen bonds have more time to form. As the water freezes, the molecules become arranged in a more open, crystalline structure, making the ice less dense than the liquid form of water with its more closely packed molecules. Because of this seemingly insignificant characteristic of water, a pond or lake will not freeze solid during the winter months. Only the top will freeze over, providing an insulating barrier for the water below and making the fishies very happy!

And there’s yet another (and the last one I’ll mention) important life-sustaining property of water that’s related to its polarity and hydrogen bonding. Water is known as the universal solvent, but I won’t go into how polarity plays a part in that (just know that it does). We’ll only look at how organisms are impacted by the fact that so many things can be dissolved in water. Obviously, we want our sugar to dissolve in our sweet tea, but that’s hardly life-sustaining (or maybe it is for some of you). There are so many chemical reactions going on at the cellular level – the reactions of photosynthesis or the reactions of cellular respiration, just to name a couple of examples. Water is the medium in which most reactions occur, and it’s the perfect substance for transporting important materials in and out of cells and throughout an organism’s body. Wherever water goes, it carries with it valuable chemicals, nutrients, and minerals, and it even helps flush out wastes and toxins, all because it’s an excellent solvent! (Remember that list of things I mentioned earlier about the functions of the human body that require water? Lots of those are related to the solvent properties of water.) And we (as well as other organisms) are constantly losing water through some of our bodily functions, so you can see how important it is that we also constantly take in water to stay hydrated!

Water is definitely an extraordinary substance! Its molecules are polar, which makes it cohesive, gives it surface tension, gives it a high heat capacity, makes it less dense as a solid, and allows it to dissolve more materials than any other solvent. And all of these properties are incredibly important for life! But there are a few more things that make water and its properties even more amazing! First, I mentioned that it takes a quantity of water a long time to heat and a long time to cool. So water has a very high boiling point, which would not be predicted if comparing it to the pattern seen in other hydrogen compounds (it should fall below negative 60 Celsius degrees – yes, negative!). Secondly, it’s extremely unusual for a compound lacking carbon to exist as a liquid at standard temperatures and pressures – and yet water does! Next, water is the only substance to exist as a solid, liquid, and a gas at temperatures found on Earth. Lastly, water is one of the few substances whose solid state is less dense than its liquid state. If water didn’t possess these unusual qualities, it would not be the life-sustaining force that it is! And, to me, those unusual and extraordinary qualities of water point to our unusual and extraordinary God!

In Psalm 65:9-10, David praises God for his provision of water to enrich the earth. “You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it. You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.” Water has always been associated with life. Living water! Biblically, it is often symbolic of God’s provisions for us, including salvation.

In the very first psalm, we can read how a righteous man is compared to “a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.” (Psalm 1:3) What a comforting and appealing picture this wondrous supply of water in the psalm would have been to early readers living in such dry climates as Palestine! The tree is productive because of its plentiful source of life-giving water, and we can also be productive if we get our nourishment from God’s life-giving words. Jeremiah paints a very similar scene in Jeremiah 17:7-8. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is in the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” And Jeremiah goes on to say, in 17:13, that those who forsake the LORD forsake “the fountain of living water.”

I love the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in John 4. I hope you will take the time to read the whole account, but at least notice Christ’s reference to living water. He had asked the woman for a drink, and she was surprised because Jews didn’t have anything to do with Samaritans. Jesus responded by saying, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10) Of course, the woman wanted to know from where Jesus would get that living water, since he had nothing to use for drawing it. And Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14) Eternal life! Another of God’s provisions for us!

So how do we attain eternal life when this earthly life is finished? We don’t forsake the “fountain of living water” (Jeremiah 17:13) but drink the water it provides. (John 4:13-14) Nourish our spiritual bodies with the words of life – God’s words! And obey those words! Well, we’re almost, but not quite, finished with our biblical water references. (I’ll leave it with you to search your Bible for the 700+ times that water is mentioned.) You may recall the story in Acts of Philip preaching the good news about Jesus to the Ethiopian eunuch. As they traveled down the road, the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” (Acts 8:36) We need water for baptism! Baptism is where we put on Christ (Galatians 3:27). Colossians 2:12-14 reads, “having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” Did you catch all of that? “Dead in your trespasses” but “God made alive together with him.” Sin is like the dry desert that takes away life but God provides the living water to revive us in Christ’s death on the cross. Romans 6:4 puts it this way: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” And 1 Peter 3:20-21 says, “because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” It should not be a shock that baptism, this simple act of obedience, involves water, a literal and symbolic sustainer of life.

Stay hydrated, friends! Hydrate your physical bodies for a healthier life on this planet, and hydrate your spiritual bodies to achieve immortality!

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Sources

• http://www.worldwater.org/conflict/list/
• https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry_Textbook_Maps/Supplemental_Modules_(Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry)/Physical_Properties_of_Matter/States_of_Matter/Properties_of_Liquids/Unusual_Properties_of_Water
• https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/science/how-much-water-there-earth?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects
• https://sciencing.com/about-6384365-water-important-life-earth-.html
• https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/why-is-water-important
• https://hymnary.org/text/in_the_desert_of_sorrow_and_sin
• https://sites.duke.edu/theconnection/2014/06/05/remembering-gods-gift-of-water/