The Memory of Water

Part 1, Remember Your Baptism

During spring break, I went camping in Big Bend Ranch State Park with some friends from work. We spent delightful days hiking in the desert landscapes.

On our first day, we explored the arroyo on the Cinco Tinaja Trail. There are five depressions in the arroyo where water pools, thus Cinco Tinaja. We ate lunch in the shadows of the rock where the arroyo empties out into the desert. A picture from our lunch spot is below.

Desert arroyos are lovely, mini-canyons that have been carved out of the rock by water running in the desert over thousands of years. The rock is worn smooth and you can trace the current of the water in the curves of the stone.

Looking back up into the arroyo during lunch, one of my friends mentioned that he heard arroyos described as "the memory of water" in the desert.

That's such a lovely, evocative phrase. The memory of water. It made me think of baptism and the life of faith.

The tradition teaches us to "remember your baptism," to cultivate a memory of water. Water that brought life to a parched and arid land. More, as with arroyos, the water of baptism, as it flows through our lives, shapes our lives. The Holy Spirit carves paths through the stone. The deep grooves of sanctification etching our souls. 

The life of faith is a memory of water.