World Water Day 2020

One month before Earth Day, on 22 March, United Nations World Water Day particularly celebrates fresh waterways. 2020 was going to be the fifth year in a row the Green Faith Team held a public WWD celebration; it would have been our third meeting by the LA Riverside, but the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic changed that. Since I'd created a Save the Date and later an event flyer, I designed a program (after all) because multi-piece campaigns are good for any portfolio.

As it turned out, the PTB decided to post resources so people could have their own virtual WWD! I'm blogging the thanksgiving for baptism and scripture readings I included in this year's program. My 3x3 illustration features my LA River photos from 2019, plus an announcement for the {Children's} Watercolor Table we'd expected to offer this time.

Thanksgiving for Baptism

Holy God, holy and merciful, holy and mighty,
you are the river of life, you are the everlasting wellspring,
you are the fire of rebirth.

Glory to you for oceans and lakes, for rivers and streams.
Honor to you for cloud and rain, for dew and snow.
Your waters are below us, around us, above us: our life is born in you.
You are the fountain of resurrection.

Praise to you for your saving waters:
Noah and the animals survive the flood,
Hagar discovers your well.
The Israelites escape through the sea, and they drink from your gushing rock.
Naaman washes his leprosy away,
and the Samaritan woman will never be thirsty again.

©2016 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Exodus 15:22-27

²²Then Moses ordered Israel to set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. ²³When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter. That is why it was called Marah. ²⁴And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” ²⁵He cried out to the Lord; and the Lord showed him a piece of wood; he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.

There the Lord made for them a statute and an ordinance and there he put them to the test. ²⁶He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.”

²⁷Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees; and they camped there by the water.

Revelation 22:1-5

¹Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ²through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. ³Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; ⁴they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.