Water is essential to embodied life: Not only are human beings 60 percent water, but we last only three days without drinking it. For those who lived in the semi-arid world of the Mediterranean basin, the reliable water of rivers was a valuable resource.

This passage tells us that the water flowing from the divine throne of God the Father and Jesus the Lamb is remarkably pure and “bright as crystal.” Further, it is found splashing up and out of the center of the street—available to all, unlike clean water in the Roman Empire and in many places today.

Water language describes God’s presence throughout the Bible. For instance, Ezekiel 47:1-12, Joel 3:18, and Zechariah 14:8 all depict water flowing from the future Zion—that perfect kingdom in which God dwells with God’s people. Jesus describes himself as the water of life throughout the Gospel of John (see John 7:37 and 4:14). And the Holy Spirit is poured out and fills people like water.

But there is perhaps a deeper meaning to the symbolic biblical language of water. To know God is to be connected to the source of all life. By God’s grace, we get to drink the living water—in eternity, yes, but also here and now. We get to taste what it means to be alive. We get to bathe in divine waters and know that God, like water, sustains us, cleanses us, and comprises our very being.

As we are reminded in the sacrament of baptism or even by a hot shower, cool glass of water, or a walk by the sea, the physical and the spiritual are not separate. God gives us the blessing of life through the living water. And we are constantly reminded of this grace if we have eyes and hearts to see.