Have you heard the expression, “an embarrassment of riches?” It’s this idea that you have so much that it’s almost too much — more than one person should have. When I think of living in Michigan and the water arounds us, the phrase “an embarrassment of riches” comes to mind. This past week, as I gathered with the Conference of Bishops, with all of the bishops in the ELCA, I may or may not have teased my colleagues from Ohio about their serious lack of lakes.
In Michigan, you are never more than six miles away from a body of water and never more than 85 miles away from one of the Great Lakes. We might not even notice this amazing fact if we never left the state. My four years of living in Ohio during seminary left me feeling dry.
There are two things that I want to say about the abundance of water in the place where we call home. First of all, a simple “Thanks be to God!” for this wonderful gift of life that refreshes and sustains all of creation.
Secondly, as we read these texts from John this Lent: Jesus telling the Samaritan woman at the well, “the water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life;” the man born blind being instructed by Jesus to wash in the pool of Siloam and receiving his sight; the Good Shepherd leading us to still waters, I invite you to remember these things as you pass by the local lake or river. I encourage you to try to come up with all of the stories in the Bible where water becomes a way that God brings us life or brings us to. I hope as you take a drink of water, enjoy your morning shower, stand at the edge of Lake Michigan or Lake Huron, you see and experience the very Living Water with which Jesus promises to fill us. Always, with God, there is an embarrassment of riches!
+BJST