Divers and Dabblers
Now when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. ~ Luke 3:22
If someone tells you they have an exact count of a large raft of diving ducks, don’t buy a used car from them. I suppose that they could all be resting at the time of the counting, but if they are feeding, kiss precision goodbye. If they dove at the same time and popped up in the same spot, perhaps there would be a chance, but in reality you’d have a better chance counting kernels of popcorn as they are popping. Thankfully, that is only one feeding method practiced by ducks. An entire different group of ducks prefers to dabble. They don’t have to chase their food because it doesn’t swim, it is rooted. They stick to shallower water where they can simply tip bottoms up and reach plants beneath the surface. They conveniently stay in place allowing a count of heads and bums.
It is fascinating to observe the diverse ways that water provides for creation. For the divers, it provides water-bound creatures for food, while the dabblers are nourished by vegetation that has adapted to growing underwater. Of course, water not only quenches thirst, it also cleanses. That dual function is seen in our spiritual practices. Baptism represents a new start, cleansed from the stain of sin. But we must be careful not to interpret that as an excuse to exclude “the great unwashed.” The only thing we have to offer God is our dirty selves to be washed, and frankly, we don’t even have to ask, it is the Divine’s pleasure to clean us. So maybe those others are not as dirty as we might be tempted to believe. Just because they haven’t asked in the way you have doesn’t mean that they haven’t been cleansed. And one thing that Jesus made perfectly clear is that God does not love you more than them.
Taking Jesus’ behavior as a model, the means for others to be made clean is simple, it is you! Jesus washed his disciples’ feet as nearly his last act before death to emphasize the critical message that it is our job to wash the dirt away from others.
Prayer: Font of Life-giving Water, we thirst for you in our lives. Remind us that we find you in service, united like drops of water in a mighty river where there is no they. Amen.
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