Water

Water is key and crucial to life.  It also plays a massive role in our Christian faith and its stories.  Water is used in baptism.  At Cana it is turned into wine.  Moses strikes a rock to produce water.  Earlier he had turned water into blood.  With Noah we struggle against the flood waters.  There are many references. 

Sister Vandana, in her fascinating little commentary on John so rooted in the Indian context ("Waters of Fire", Amity House, 1988) explores this theme: "Water!  An ordinary, everyday, familiar thing, usually taken for granted and unnoticed - except when found absent and needed.  God often uses very ordinary things and lets his glory shine out through them.  One is tempted perhaps to call water God's favourite creation!" (p. 20). 

Sister Vandana goes on to look at the special nature of water as parallel to how human beings are.  She makes a specific comparison with Mary - "Mary, like water, was creature - ordinary, unnoticed, quiet, serviceable, lovely, and previous" (p. 22).

Is there something to ponder there about how we see others?