Water of life

A baptismal prayer

by Ken & Nancy Hastings Sehested

We thank you, God, for water.
By it you give life to plants,
Animals, and all humankind.

We thank you that in the beginning
your Spirit of creation moved over
the face of the waters.

We thank you for your rainbow
covenant promise that emerged from
the drowning floodwaters.

We thank you for safe passage
of our ancestors through the Red Sea,
from slavery to freedom.

We thank you for quenching the
thirst of our forebears with water
from the rock at Horeb.

We thank you for the Heaven-parting,
dove-accompanying baptism of Jesus
in the River Jordan.

We thank you for Jesus,
Who stilled raging water;
who offered living water,
a spring of water welling up
      to eternal life;
who washed the disciples’ feet
to signify their continuing vocation.

We thank you, God, that you
have led us by still waters.

We thank you for the promise
that one day justice will flow like
the waters, righteousness like
an everflowing stream.

We thank you for creating us
in the watery womb of our
mothers and for recreating us
in the watery womb of baptism.

            This is our confession:
Having been buried with Christ into death,
knowing that Christ was raised from the
dead by the glory of God,
we ourselves are raised to
walk in the newness of life.

Amen!

©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Reprinted from In the Land of the Willing: Litanies, Prayers, Poems, and Benedictions.