“God . . . covereth the heaven [sky] with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth.”
Psalm 147:78
The human body is about seventy percent water, which, next to oxygen, is the most important element enabling us to live. Almost everything in nature demands water. The Creator has satisfied this need through clouds, dew, rain and snow, as well as the unseen humidity of the air.
Not all places on the earth have the same amount of water. Desert areas do not receive the same amount as rain forests or swampy areas where trees and other vegetation grow right in water. Yet the Creator has placed the forms of life best suited to the climate in each part of the world. Consider the cactus and trees of deserts where rain may only fall two or three times a year. The Creator has so formed the vegetation that, when rain does come, they can store it in their roots and trunks for later use. Camels crossing desert sands drink huge amounts before traveling and can then survive comfortably for a week or more without drinking.
Grown-ups use up to three quarts of water a day. Not all of it comes from liquid we drink -almost everything we eat has water in it. For example, meat is often seventy percent water, potatoes eighty percent and watermelon more like ninety-seven percent.
Farm crops need lots of water either from rainfall or irrigation, as do grass and flowers. This is also true of trees, whether fruit bearers, leafy oaks and maples, needle-bearing evergreens or giant redwoods. Where does all the water come from, and is there the danger that we may run out?
Solomon wrote, “All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again” (Ecclesiastes 1:7). This brings our attention to one of the most remarkable provisions in God’s creation: The amount of water in the world - in clouds, snow on mountains and the contents of lakes, rivers and oceans (aboveground and underground) -remains the same. None of it is ever lost! The oceans hold just so much, and in spite of rivers, rain and snow draining into them, there is a perfect balance. Evaporation sends just the right amount back into the sky to return later as rain or snow, keeping the perfect balance by the only One who could design such a cycle-the Creator Himself.
Because water is so vital for maintaining life, the Lord used water as a symbol of accepting Him as Saviour, to give us everlasting life. He said, “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14).
Have you taken a drink of that water?
ML-05/01/2005
MAY 1, 2005