WATER

I recently visited the wettest place on earth. It’s a city called Cherrapunji in India. We were all surprised to see how barren and dry it looked. Could this really be the wettest place on earth? Were we in the right place? Well, it was and we were. In a online site called extremescience.com, I read: “It’s ironic that the wettest place in the world manages to thirst for water each winter when no rain falls at all for months at a time…. People who live there frequently have to travel on foot for several kilometers to bathe and get drinking water.”

This is an area that receives perhaps 1200 centimeters (nearly 500 inches) of rain per year. But there are a couple of problems. First, they receive almost all of it during the monsoon season of about 4 to 6 months. So it pours heavily almost constantly. And secondly, the people have decimated the forests of the region so there’s nothing to hold in the moisture. As a result, it flows freely down the mountain sides in lovely waterfalls, making the valley below very lush and green, but leaving nothing behind on the hilltop.

Water is a gift from God, a very precious gift. We are all created from water (24:45, 25:54). Our bodies are over 70% water. We need water to survive—to grow our crops, to keep clean, to quench our thirst. And the water comes only from God.

[27:60] Who is the One who created the heavens and the earth? Who is the One who sends down to you from the sky water, whereby we produce gardens full of beauty―you could not possibly manufacture its trees? Is it another god with GOD? Indeed, they are people who have deviated.

[2:22] The One who made the earth habitable for you, and the sky a structure. He sends down from the sky water, to produce all kinds of fruits for your sustenance. You shall not set up idols to rival GOD, now that you know.

[41:39] Among His proofs is that you see the land still, then, as soon as we shower it with water, it vibrates with life. Surely, the One who revived it can revive the dead. He is Omnipotent.

So we need to be aware of this gift, conscious of its awesomeness, and most of all, appreciative of where it comes from. When you live in a desert climate, you become mindful of just how precious water can be. We may go months without rain; then God will send a storm, and the people and the plants will rejoice.

[42:28] He is the One who sends down the rain after they had despaired, and spreads His mercy. He is the only Master, Most Praiseworthy.

[30:48] GOD is the One who sends the winds, to stir up clouds, to be spread throughout the sky in accordance with His will. He then piles the clouds up, then you see the rain coming down therefrom. When it falls on whomever He chooses from among His servants, they rejoice.

[22:63] Do you not see that GOD sends down from the sky water that turns the land green? GOD is Sublime, Cognizant.

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