A River Runs Through: Water in God’s Purpose for Creation

A theological paper for the inaugural conference of A Rocha in South Africa – 12 August 2006, by Allen Goddard

Water is everywhere around us and in us, tangible as sweat, visible as the high seas, invisible as the envelope of earth’s life-protecting atmosphere, and essential as blood. Water provides the matrix of our conception and our embryonic pre-natal environment. Breaking waters bring us to birth and water is the final elemental comfort we may ask for in dying. In the environment water has become a non-renewable resource because of its present rate of consumption, pollution and exploitation. Should it surprise us then that water has a central place in the story of God’s purposes for creation?

  • Author: Allen Goddard
  • Publisher: A Rocha South Africa
  • Bible references: Genesis 2; Genesis 9; Genesis 29; Exodus 1; Exodus 2; Numbers 20; Deuteronomy 6; Psalm 36; Psalm 42; Psalm 46; Isaiah 12; Jeremiah 2; Jeremiah 5; Jeremiah 31; Ezekiel 47; Zechariah 12; Zechariah 13; John 19; John 20; Colossians 1; Revelation 4; Revelation 21; Revelation 22
  • Licensing: CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Featured image: Orange river, by Pavel Špindler (CC BY 3.0)