We turn on the tap and out it flows - water. It's clear and clean, free from chemicals and creatures which would harm us. We trust that it is healthy for so much of what we need it for requires it to be so. In this 'corner' of the earth we rarely run out of water, in fact we usually complain that there is too much of it falling from the sky, and its presence as clouds darkens our days and depresses the growth of our crops and gardens.

In other corners of the globe people who use much less water than we do go without. Neither the rain to replenish nor the infrastructure to supply water any distance are available. Where access to water is possible it is often contaminated and its use presents a real health risk. We learned that 1,100,000,000 people live without clean water, 2,400,000,000 live without proper sanitation and every 15 seconds a child dies from a water-related disease (5,000 every day) during a major campaign on water and sanitation before the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. We need to ask what effect such campaigns have - on us, on our use of water, on our appreciation of its availability and cleanliness, on those in power both politically and economically with direct and indirect influence on provision of services in two-thirds world countries.

But water isn't always life-giving. Deaths of fishermen and body-boarders around our coasts remind us of its deadly power. The tsunami on 26 December 2004 wiped out towns and villages, destroyed crops and coastlines, the loss of life being equivalent to that of the population of Belfast. Tales are told of how the black water looked like the head of a snake as it turned corners and raced along streets pursuing those who ran to flee it.

Jesus described himself as the 'living water', a helpful picture in understanding how we are to relate to him and how his presence in our lives affects us. Yet there is an even richer over-arching vein of water in the Bible. The river flowing from Eden watered the trees that grew in the garden, all kinds that were 'pleasing to the eye and good for food' - God's provision for the created world. Given his delight in what he had made, do we value it similarly and seek to care for it as a priority? The water that flowed from under the threshold of the temple in Ezekiel's vision became a great river, making the salt water of the sea fresh so that everything lived. Fruit trees of all kinds on its banks continually bore fruit for food and their healing leaves never withered. Surely a potent picture of how Israel then and the church now is to minister to the world. The river of the water of life in John's vision flowed from the throne of God and the Lamb down the great street of the city. The tree of life, growing on both sides of the river, bears fruit continually, and 'its leaves are for the healing of the nations'.

God's concern and vision are for the wholeness and not just the salvation of human endeavour. The call on those who are nurtured by the "living water" of Christ is to be the fruit and the leaves God uses in his provision for, and healing of, the nations.

Ethel White

The Centre's latest resource, Power and Providence: Studies on the Book of Esther is now available online (click here) or by contacting Anna Rankin.

We are pleased to recommend "Christianity: the encounter with modern culture", a six week course by Prof. David Livingstone and Prof. Stephen Williams beginning in September at the Institute for Christian Training. For further details go to http://www.union.ac.uk/ctnet/culture.html