Water and Fire


 

As I walked down the street, the sun was at the perfect angle to transform the streams of water from a sprinkler system into flames of fire. It was strange to see what appeared as three fires in the distance turn out to be a sprinkler system just doing its job. Water and fire, so opposite, united in one of nature’s best optical illusions.
Water and fire. Water the symbol of cleansing. Fire, the symbol of the unpredictable, wild Spirit. They really do go together after all. Jesus, in talking to Nicodemus, said, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.” It takes both to fully see life as God sees it. Forgiveness sets us free. The Spirit leads us forward into a new way of experiencing God, life and each other.
Sometimes we experience God as the cool, gentle mist of water, refreshing and reviving. Sometimes we experience life in all its burning unpredictability. Either way, it is the same God and the same Spirit at work to bring us into the Kingdom and bring the Kingdom into us.
Peace.

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