Daily Devotion for May, 28th 2009

Touching the Holy
Read Mark 1:9-11
Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. . . . [it] will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life."
-John 4:1314 (NRSV)
FOR people in the arid lands mentioned in the Bible, water was life. They built their communities around it. Water was also used for holy purposes. Priests took ritual baths to cleanse themselves for their temple duties. John baptized people to signal their repentance, and eventually he baptized Jesus.
Growing up Roman Catholic, I learned when I was young to dip my fingers in the holy water and make the sign of the cross. I gladly felt the cool water on my fingertips and face every Sunday.
We humans experience the world through our physical senses. We need to see, touch, smell, hear, and taste things in order to know them. Likewise, we long for a tangible encounter with God. A ritual like making the sign of the cross can become routine, but the added feel of the water makes it a physical reminder of God's presence.
Knowing our human need for sensory information, God sent us the physical presence of Jesus so that we could know God's love in a tangible way. As Christians, we are now the physical evidence of God's love in the world.
Kathleen McDade (Oregon, USA)

Thank you, God, for sending us Jesus as a tangible reminder of your love. Help us always to show that love to others. Amen.
Thought for the Day!
How can I be Christ for someone today?