You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Would you have gone, if Jesus walked by your place of work and said, “Follow me?” Would you have left your job, family, home on the promise of “I will make you fish for people?”
As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.
There wasn’t any security in what Jesus was offering. And yet he said, “Follow me,” and people did. Immediately. How could they be so sure, that they were willing to go right then and there? Leave it all, no looking back.
Once I was praying, and had a sense of Jesus say, “Follow me.” I said, “Where are we going?” An answer came quickly in my mind: “You don’t get an itinerary. You don’t get the route. When I say, ‘Follow me,’ I just mean, ‘Follow me.’ Put your focus on where I am, not where I’m going.” In other words, follow the leader, not the path.
Maybe this should not have come as a revelation, but I had never thought of it that way. If you’re like me, you want to see what you’re committing to, what’s around the next corner. But it makes sense – Jesus invites us not to a walk-about, but to a relationship in which we are transformed and equipped to participate in God’s work of transforming others. In Christ, we are committing to a person, not a program. Kind of like a marriage… we don’t get much of a road map with those either, do we?
Here’s a prayer experiment: for the next week, let’s invite Jesus to lead us every day to the things and people he has blessed or intends to bless. And pray to be alive to that leading – which will mean checking in with him a few times during the day. You might set an alert on your phone or computer, or set up some regular times to stop and pray, “Where we going next, Lord?” And in the evening, take about five minutes to write down where you were led.
I commit myself to doing this. If you do, let me know if you’re surprised by anything. I believe Jesus says, “Follow me,” because he knows where we’re going. And there’s only one way for us to find out…
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-21-26 - The Invitation
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Imagine you're a fisherman. It’s late morning. You came in from the pre-dawn effort some hours ago, and now you’re prepping your nets for the next foray. This is a routine, the same every day, and yet it doesn’t get boring. You have time to think, time to talk with your buddies, time to gossip. This is your life. Some days the catch is great, other days nonexistent, but it evens out. It’s a living, and a life.
A man comes along the shore, walking toward you… he stops, watches you for a few minutes. You’re about to say, “Can I help you?,” when he speaks. He points down the shore, in the direction he’s going. “Follow me,” he says. “I will make you fish for people.” He looks at you intently. He obviously expects you to go with him. Go with him? A stranger, and clearly not a fisherman. What the heck?
But your brother’s already dropped the net he’s repairing. He’s already out of the water. He’s giving your father a hug. He’s looking at you. “You coming, or not?” Andrew already knows this guy. This is that rabbi. The “Lamb of God” guy. You’ve met him. But leave work and family to follow him?
From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
What was so persuasive about Jesus’ invitation that Peter and Andrew, James and John all dropped what they were doing and went with him? As recruiting lines go, “I will make you fish for people” has always struck me as peculiar. What does it mean? Who wants to fish for people? There must have been something amazing about Jesus.
And more, with these few words he signals these fishermen that their purpose in life might go beyond fish. He suggests they have something to give that their fellow humans need. He will teach them how to offer the life that goes beyond mere living, to invite people into God-Life. That’s true of you and me as well. Whatever it is we’re good at, Jesus can help equip us to use those gifts to bring life to people in need of it, to bring hope to the lost, to speak God’s “Yes!” to those who have heard more than enough of the world’s “No’s.”
What do you see as your primary vocation? What gifts go with that? What if, in prayer today, you offer those gifts and living to Jesus and say, “What will you make of this?” It’s called a prayer of oblation, offering. As you sit in silence with that prayer, what words or images come to mind?
Maybe Jesus already answered you years ago – if so, how has it been, translating your human skills into Spirit-equipped ministry? What fills your imagination?
We don’t have a man on a beach inviting/commanding us to follow. On the other hand, we have an advantage Peter and Andrew didn’t – we already know how the story turns out, at least the part they were in. Our story with Jesus is still unfolding, and we have reason to glory in it.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Imagine you're a fisherman. It’s late morning. You came in from the pre-dawn effort some hours ago, and now you’re prepping your nets for the next foray. This is a routine, the same every day, and yet it doesn’t get boring. You have time to think, time to talk with your buddies, time to gossip. This is your life. Some days the catch is great, other days nonexistent, but it evens out. It’s a living, and a life.
A man comes along the shore, walking toward you… he stops, watches you for a few minutes. You’re about to say, “Can I help you?,” when he speaks. He points down the shore, in the direction he’s going. “Follow me,” he says. “I will make you fish for people.” He looks at you intently. He obviously expects you to go with him. Go with him? A stranger, and clearly not a fisherman. What the heck?
But your brother’s already dropped the net he’s repairing. He’s already out of the water. He’s giving your father a hug. He’s looking at you. “You coming, or not?” Andrew already knows this guy. This is that rabbi. The “Lamb of God” guy. You’ve met him. But leave work and family to follow him?
From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
What was so persuasive about Jesus’ invitation that Peter and Andrew, James and John all dropped what they were doing and went with him? As recruiting lines go, “I will make you fish for people” has always struck me as peculiar. What does it mean? Who wants to fish for people? There must have been something amazing about Jesus.
And more, with these few words he signals these fishermen that their purpose in life might go beyond fish. He suggests they have something to give that their fellow humans need. He will teach them how to offer the life that goes beyond mere living, to invite people into God-Life. That’s true of you and me as well. Whatever it is we’re good at, Jesus can help equip us to use those gifts to bring life to people in need of it, to bring hope to the lost, to speak God’s “Yes!” to those who have heard more than enough of the world’s “No’s.”
What do you see as your primary vocation? What gifts go with that? What if, in prayer today, you offer those gifts and living to Jesus and say, “What will you make of this?” It’s called a prayer of oblation, offering. As you sit in silence with that prayer, what words or images come to mind?
Maybe Jesus already answered you years ago – if so, how has it been, translating your human skills into Spirit-equipped ministry? What fills your imagination?
We don’t have a man on a beach inviting/commanding us to follow. On the other hand, we have an advantage Peter and Andrew didn’t – we already know how the story turns out, at least the part they were in. Our story with Jesus is still unfolding, and we have reason to glory in it.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-20-26 - A Great Light
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
“The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.”
It is easy to envision people stuck in dim light, just going about their business with little hope of transformation or power. I imagine living rooms lit only by the flicker of screens – televisions, game consoles, computer monitors. I think of people disconnected from hope, from joy, from God, from one another, and in a profound sense from themselves. We all know “people who sit in darkness… in the region and shadow of death.”
Our sacred story rests heavily on the theme of darkness and light. This metaphor is one of the most prominent by which the followers of Jesus, and those who came after them, sought to make meaning of this story that held so much life for them – and for us. And the theme resonates with us in all times, especially times that feel so dark as now.
Our claim as Christ-followers is that God has broken into those dimly lit rooms with light - not only light, but a Great Light. The reality of what God is up to in the humanity of Christ shines a light bright enough to transform the deepest darkness. And we are bearers of that light. The One who called himself the Light of the World also said to his followers, “You are lights for the world.”
When you think of “people who sit in darkness,” who comes to your mind? An individual? A community? Hold that person or group in your mind’s eye, and imagine light shining on them. Not just a little light – a steadily growing light getting brighter and brighter, just bathing that person in its glow.
This is a way of praying for people, using our imaginations. It is a way of picturing God’s blessing. And, because when we pray we are inviting the power of heaven to be made real here on earth (“on earth, as it is in heaven…”), we can believe that God is blessing that person or persons. And us, as we hold them up to the light. It shines on us too.
The light has not gone away. And it shines not only on "the road by the sea, across the Jordan…" It shines in our own lives and communities. It shines through us. And the darker the world gets, the brighter the light we bring.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
“The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.”
Matthew’s gospel often matches the events of Jesus’ life with prophecies from Israel’s past. So here he links the place where Jesus makes a home to a promise from Isaiah: He… made his home in Capernaum by the lake, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 'Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles — the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.’
It is easy to envision people stuck in dim light, just going about their business with little hope of transformation or power. I imagine living rooms lit only by the flicker of screens – televisions, game consoles, computer monitors. I think of people disconnected from hope, from joy, from God, from one another, and in a profound sense from themselves. We all know “people who sit in darkness… in the region and shadow of death.”
Our sacred story rests heavily on the theme of darkness and light. This metaphor is one of the most prominent by which the followers of Jesus, and those who came after them, sought to make meaning of this story that held so much life for them – and for us. And the theme resonates with us in all times, especially times that feel so dark as now.
Our claim as Christ-followers is that God has broken into those dimly lit rooms with light - not only light, but a Great Light. The reality of what God is up to in the humanity of Christ shines a light bright enough to transform the deepest darkness. And we are bearers of that light. The One who called himself the Light of the World also said to his followers, “You are lights for the world.”
When you think of “people who sit in darkness,” who comes to your mind? An individual? A community? Hold that person or group in your mind’s eye, and imagine light shining on them. Not just a little light – a steadily growing light getting brighter and brighter, just bathing that person in its glow.
This is a way of praying for people, using our imaginations. It is a way of picturing God’s blessing. And, because when we pray we are inviting the power of heaven to be made real here on earth (“on earth, as it is in heaven…”), we can believe that God is blessing that person or persons. And us, as we hold them up to the light. It shines on us too.
The light has not gone away. And it shines not only on "the road by the sea, across the Jordan…" It shines in our own lives and communities. It shines through us. And the darker the world gets, the brighter the light we bring.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-19-26 - Temporary Homes
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
The Son of Man may have had nowhere to lay his head – but he did have a lake house where he could hang his hat: Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake…
It seems Jesus made this move from his family home in Nazareth after learning of John’s arrest by Herod. Was Capernaum safer than Nazareth? Or did he move there because it was home to several of his new disciples? Capernaum, where Peter and Andrew lived, became the place Jesus went back to when he could, the center for his new and growing community of followers.
Yet, from what we read in the Gospels, Jesus didn’t spend much time there. He was on the move, heading forward, alive to God’s mission, making the love and justice and wholeness of God known in word and action. I wonder how much time he actually spent in Capernaum, and whether he missed it when he was on the road.
Where is home for you? Is it where it’s always been, or someplace new? I made a big move last summer to take up life and ministry in Nova Scotia, a place I’d never even visited, but in which I feel completely at home. Often the mission of God calls us out of the familiar into new places.
And where is home for you relative to your engagement in God's mission? Is it the place you retreat to, or the place from which your ministry comes, your base of operations? My home is both.
Do you have a place for prayer or worship in your home? Consider creating one – a corner of a room, a table and chair, a seat by a window… a place where you go to pray, light a candle, read the bible, give thanks to God, invite God’s Spirit to fill you and inspire your projects.
The letter to the Hebrews says our ultimate home is with God in the heavenly places, reminding us that the heroes of faith we read about in the Old Testament knew their homes on this earth were just rest stops on their journey to the heart of God’s love. Certainly Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whom many honor today, was well aware of that as he traveled and worked tirelessly for racial justice. He was assassinated in a motel, as temporary a home as can be.
Jesus must have known that the home he made in Capernaum was exceedingly temporary. I hope he enjoyed his water views while he could, knowing his final rest would be in the true Home from which he came, the home he has promised to prepare for us. So let's enjoy home – and not get so comfortable we forget where we’re headed.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
The Son of Man may have had nowhere to lay his head – but he did have a lake house where he could hang his hat: Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake…
It seems Jesus made this move from his family home in Nazareth after learning of John’s arrest by Herod. Was Capernaum safer than Nazareth? Or did he move there because it was home to several of his new disciples? Capernaum, where Peter and Andrew lived, became the place Jesus went back to when he could, the center for his new and growing community of followers.
Yet, from what we read in the Gospels, Jesus didn’t spend much time there. He was on the move, heading forward, alive to God’s mission, making the love and justice and wholeness of God known in word and action. I wonder how much time he actually spent in Capernaum, and whether he missed it when he was on the road.
Where is home for you? Is it where it’s always been, or someplace new? I made a big move last summer to take up life and ministry in Nova Scotia, a place I’d never even visited, but in which I feel completely at home. Often the mission of God calls us out of the familiar into new places.
And where is home for you relative to your engagement in God's mission? Is it the place you retreat to, or the place from which your ministry comes, your base of operations? My home is both.
Do you have a place for prayer or worship in your home? Consider creating one – a corner of a room, a table and chair, a seat by a window… a place where you go to pray, light a candle, read the bible, give thanks to God, invite God’s Spirit to fill you and inspire your projects.
The letter to the Hebrews says our ultimate home is with God in the heavenly places, reminding us that the heroes of faith we read about in the Old Testament knew their homes on this earth were just rest stops on their journey to the heart of God’s love. Certainly Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whom many honor today, was well aware of that as he traveled and worked tirelessly for racial justice. He was assassinated in a motel, as temporary a home as can be.
Jesus must have known that the home he made in Capernaum was exceedingly temporary. I hope he enjoyed his water views while he could, knowing his final rest would be in the true Home from which he came, the home he has promised to prepare for us. So let's enjoy home – and not get so comfortable we forget where we’re headed.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-16-26 - God-Names
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
People don't usually give us nicknames on first meeting. But that’s what Jesus did when Andrew introduced him to his brother Simon. Andrew was already convinced of Jesus’ identity as the Christ. He knew Jesus was the real deal, the long-awaited Messiah. And, as do most of us when we make a thrilling discovery, he immediately told his nearest and dearest.
Lacking Instagram or What’sApp, Andrew found his brother in person and brought him to meet Jesus. It likely would have been much less transformative had Peter just seen a picture of Jesus on Facebook – there is something about the immediacy of presence that opens us.
One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah.” He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, 'You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas' (which is translated Peter)." No social niceties – just, "Here’s what you’re going to be called from now on."
In our scriptures, people often receive new names to reflect new missional identities. Abram becomes Abraham; Sarai becomes Sarah. Jacob is renamed “Israel” – a name then conferred on the whole community of God’s promise. In the New Testament, the Hebrew-named “Saul” takes on the more Greco-Roman “Paul” as he undertakes his ministry among Gentiles. And here Jesus renames Simon bar Jonah “Peter,” or “Petros.”
John suggests he does this on the strength of one look. It’s possible that Jesus’ renaming Simon “the Rock” is a teasing way of saying “hard-headed”; we know that Peter was stubborn. Rocks are also foundations, though, and Jesus may have been signaling the role he intended Peter to play in his new community, a role Peter maintained even into leadership in the earliest Christian communities.
What “God-name” might Jesus give you? Perhaps you already have a sense of having a spiritual name. If not, here’s an invitation to play in prayer. Ask God, “What is my name as you see me?”
What name would you give yourself? What name describes your essence? Think of animals, or flowers, or emotions, activities – “Peaceful Runner,” or “Dancing Bee.” I’m being random, but it could be fun and insightful to give yourself a name that describes you.
And then decide whether that is a name you want. It might describe who you have been, rather than who you are becoming, or who you already are in God’s sight.
There’s a song that goes,
“I will change your name
People don't usually give us nicknames on first meeting. But that’s what Jesus did when Andrew introduced him to his brother Simon. Andrew was already convinced of Jesus’ identity as the Christ. He knew Jesus was the real deal, the long-awaited Messiah. And, as do most of us when we make a thrilling discovery, he immediately told his nearest and dearest.
Lacking Instagram or What’sApp, Andrew found his brother in person and brought him to meet Jesus. It likely would have been much less transformative had Peter just seen a picture of Jesus on Facebook – there is something about the immediacy of presence that opens us.
One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah.” He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, 'You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas' (which is translated Peter)." No social niceties – just, "Here’s what you’re going to be called from now on."
In our scriptures, people often receive new names to reflect new missional identities. Abram becomes Abraham; Sarai becomes Sarah. Jacob is renamed “Israel” – a name then conferred on the whole community of God’s promise. In the New Testament, the Hebrew-named “Saul” takes on the more Greco-Roman “Paul” as he undertakes his ministry among Gentiles. And here Jesus renames Simon bar Jonah “Peter,” or “Petros.”
John suggests he does this on the strength of one look. It’s possible that Jesus’ renaming Simon “the Rock” is a teasing way of saying “hard-headed”; we know that Peter was stubborn. Rocks are also foundations, though, and Jesus may have been signaling the role he intended Peter to play in his new community, a role Peter maintained even into leadership in the earliest Christian communities.
What “God-name” might Jesus give you? Perhaps you already have a sense of having a spiritual name. If not, here’s an invitation to play in prayer. Ask God, “What is my name as you see me?”
What name would you give yourself? What name describes your essence? Think of animals, or flowers, or emotions, activities – “Peaceful Runner,” or “Dancing Bee.” I’m being random, but it could be fun and insightful to give yourself a name that describes you.
And then decide whether that is a name you want. It might describe who you have been, rather than who you are becoming, or who you already are in God’s sight.
There’s a song that goes,
“I will change your name
You shall no longer be called wounded, outcast, lonely or afraid.
I will change your name
I will change your name
Your new name shall be confidence, joyfulness, overcoming one;
faithfulness, friend of God, one who seeks my face.”
Our God-name conveys not only who we truly are, and who we are becoming, but how we are called to participate in God’s mission of healing and restoration. If you find yourself with a new name, look out! You may find yourself walking a new path of blessing and being blessed.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
faithfulness, friend of God, one who seeks my face.”
Our God-name conveys not only who we truly are, and who we are becoming, but how we are called to participate in God’s mission of healing and restoration. If you find yourself with a new name, look out! You may find yourself walking a new path of blessing and being blessed.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-15-26 - Come and See
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Here we are, at the Jordan River. Jesus of Nazareth goes strolling by. John the Baptist points and says, “Look! There goes the Lamb of God.” A couple of John’s followers go, “Where? Hmmm. Maybe we should find out what that guy’s up to.” They follow Jesus. Jesus turns around and says to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.”
“Come and see” is a recurring refrain in the Gospels. The angelic host say it to the shepherds outside Bethlehem. Jesus says it to these seekers. One of these men will soon say it to his brother. Philip says it to Nathaniel. A Samaritan woman who met Jesus at a well says it to her town, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did…” And, perhaps most important, Jesus’ followers who find his tomb empty after his burial, and then encounter his resurrected self, say it: “Come and see!”
That’s all Jesus says here. Not, “Come and hear me explain the meaning of life.” Not, “Come and join my growing band of followers." Not, "Read my book." He simply invites them to explore and experience; they can respond as they feel led.
“Come and see” is an invitation to explore, a launch pad for expanding our knowledge. It is the least we can do when someone wants to introduce us to a new person, place, practice or product. We cannot truly know until we have “come and seen.” And sometimes, when we have come and seen, we find out how much more there is to learn.
John offers few details about what Andrew and the other disciple experienced with Jesus. “They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon.” Why does he tells us the time of day? Perhaps to indicate that they spent most of the day with Jesus… it was clearly a life-changing time.
Who in your life has invited you to come and see, to learn more about what Jesus is up to in their lives? Did you go? Did you experience? Give thanks for those people today.
And who might you invite to come and see this living Lord you honor? To come and hang out in his presence, see what he’s all about? This isn't necessarily inviting someone to church - it might be an invitation to spiritual conversation. Can you think of someone who might appreciate that invitation? Those are the only people we need to invite, the ones we feel will be glad we did.
The invitation to “come and see” is offered every single day. We have never seen enough, experienced enough of Jesus’ power, peace, presence, purpose. Often, when we take up his invitation to “come and see” we find ourselves compelled to “go and tell.” And so the circle grows.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Here we are, at the Jordan River. Jesus of Nazareth goes strolling by. John the Baptist points and says, “Look! There goes the Lamb of God.” A couple of John’s followers go, “Where? Hmmm. Maybe we should find out what that guy’s up to.” They follow Jesus. Jesus turns around and says to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.”
“Come and see” is a recurring refrain in the Gospels. The angelic host say it to the shepherds outside Bethlehem. Jesus says it to these seekers. One of these men will soon say it to his brother. Philip says it to Nathaniel. A Samaritan woman who met Jesus at a well says it to her town, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did…” And, perhaps most important, Jesus’ followers who find his tomb empty after his burial, and then encounter his resurrected self, say it: “Come and see!”
That’s all Jesus says here. Not, “Come and hear me explain the meaning of life.” Not, “Come and join my growing band of followers." Not, "Read my book." He simply invites them to explore and experience; they can respond as they feel led.
“Come and see” is an invitation to explore, a launch pad for expanding our knowledge. It is the least we can do when someone wants to introduce us to a new person, place, practice or product. We cannot truly know until we have “come and seen.” And sometimes, when we have come and seen, we find out how much more there is to learn.
John offers few details about what Andrew and the other disciple experienced with Jesus. “They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon.” Why does he tells us the time of day? Perhaps to indicate that they spent most of the day with Jesus… it was clearly a life-changing time.
Who in your life has invited you to come and see, to learn more about what Jesus is up to in their lives? Did you go? Did you experience? Give thanks for those people today.
And who might you invite to come and see this living Lord you honor? To come and hang out in his presence, see what he’s all about? This isn't necessarily inviting someone to church - it might be an invitation to spiritual conversation. Can you think of someone who might appreciate that invitation? Those are the only people we need to invite, the ones we feel will be glad we did.
The invitation to “come and see” is offered every single day. We have never seen enough, experienced enough of Jesus’ power, peace, presence, purpose. Often, when we take up his invitation to “come and see” we find ourselves compelled to “go and tell.” And so the circle grows.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-14-26 - What Are You Looking For?
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
The label “Lamb of God” may not have much meaning for us, but John’s followers knew exactly what he meant when he said, “Here is the Lamb of God!” To an oppressed people yearning for God to send a savior, those were loaded words meaning, “That’s the one! The Messiah, the Savior.”
Two of John's disciples hear him refer to Jesus that way, two days in a row, and they have to find out who this guy can be. Can the Savior of the world really be just a guy walking by?
It doesn’t surprise me that they start tailing Jesus – I’d be curious too. I am amused, though, by Jesus’ response : Who are these guys, following me? (“You lookin’ at me?”) I would expect him to say “What do you want?,” but he asks a more profound question: “What are you looking for?” It could be a subtle interview question.
“What are you looking for?” is a searching question.
It’s a good question for us today: “What are you looking for?”
If you’re reading this, chances are you’re involved in the Christian enterprise in some way, as a Christ-follower, seeker, or observer from a distance. What’s in it for you? What do you desire from God? From Jesus? Peace? Challenge? Comfort? Purpose? Healing? Forgiveness? Company?
Imagine Jesus asking you the question as you walk curiously behind him. “What are you looking for?”
Think about it for a few minutes. Write it down if you keep a prayer journal. And then meditate on that – is it what you want to be looking for? Can you imagine finding it?
When we know what we’re looking for, we’re often halfway to finding it. Even if we think the answer is obvious, it’s valuable to articulate it. The answer might have changed since the last time you thought about it. The way you put it into words might surprise you.
I don’t expect we’ll ever be quite done looking for things until we’re face to face with the Holy One. Then we won’t need to look anymore; only gaze in utmost love and joy, complete at last.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
The label “Lamb of God” may not have much meaning for us, but John’s followers knew exactly what he meant when he said, “Here is the Lamb of God!” To an oppressed people yearning for God to send a savior, those were loaded words meaning, “That’s the one! The Messiah, the Savior.”
Two of John's disciples hear him refer to Jesus that way, two days in a row, and they have to find out who this guy can be. Can the Savior of the world really be just a guy walking by?
It doesn’t surprise me that they start tailing Jesus – I’d be curious too. I am amused, though, by Jesus’ response : Who are these guys, following me? (“You lookin’ at me?”) I would expect him to say “What do you want?,” but he asks a more profound question: “What are you looking for?” It could be a subtle interview question.
“What are you looking for?” is a searching question.
It’s a good question for us today: “What are you looking for?”
If you’re reading this, chances are you’re involved in the Christian enterprise in some way, as a Christ-follower, seeker, or observer from a distance. What’s in it for you? What do you desire from God? From Jesus? Peace? Challenge? Comfort? Purpose? Healing? Forgiveness? Company?
Imagine Jesus asking you the question as you walk curiously behind him. “What are you looking for?”
Think about it for a few minutes. Write it down if you keep a prayer journal. And then meditate on that – is it what you want to be looking for? Can you imagine finding it?
When we know what we’re looking for, we’re often halfway to finding it. Even if we think the answer is obvious, it’s valuable to articulate it. The answer might have changed since the last time you thought about it. The way you put it into words might surprise you.
I don’t expect we’ll ever be quite done looking for things until we’re face to face with the Holy One. Then we won’t need to look anymore; only gaze in utmost love and joy, complete at last.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-13-26 - Secret Agent Man
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
I don’t know why there aren’t more movies about John the Baptist – he is a strong, odd and gripping character. If I were to make a film of the scene we’re exploring this week, it would be a Mission Impossible-style spy thriller with secret agents lurking about (let’s give the soundtrack to Johnny Rivers - even if it does sound like he’s singing “secret Asian man”…).
Spy thrillers come to mind when I read how John was able to identify Jesus as the Son of God. I imagine John asking his handler, “So, how am I going to know my contact?” And the reply, through an encoded message, “Here’s the sign – he’s going to be in the crowd coming to the river for baptism… he’ll be the one with a dove on his head…” And, of course, John will know “dove” is code for the Holy Spirit. “He’s the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit,” the message will continue, before dematerializing into a small pile of sand.
And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’”
In Matthew’s account of the story, which we read last week, John is keenly aware of who Jesus is. In Luke’s account they are cousins. John’s Gospel draws on other traditions, and he wants to establish the validity of John the Baptist’s testimony. Hence this theme of identity and recognition.
So let’s go with that. How do we identify Jesus in our lives, since he isn't walking around with flesh and bones? How do we recognize the Holy Spirit, since s/he rarely assumes that dove disguise these days? How do we perceive when we’re in Christ’s presence when we can’t rely on our five senses?
Some people feel it, a physical rush of some kind that seems connected with the Spirit. Sometimes we feel filled with joy or a desire to praise, or even weeping. Those are some internal ways – you might ask Jesus to bless you with presence in that way.
Or use the imagination God gave you, and ask Jesus if he would meet you somewhere in your mind's eye. Get still and wait and see what kind of scene unfolds, inside or outside, familiar or unknown… what do you see, hear, smell? If you sense Jesus joining you in that place, does conversation unfold? Don’t rush it. Be attentive to what you perceive.
The other way he said we’d know him is in other people: in other Christ-followers; in the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the sick, the lonely, the imprisoned. When you find yourself with someone in need, are you ever aware of Christ in that person? We can pray, “Jesus, let me see you.” It's a really good prayer when someone is annoying us.
John the Baptist says, “And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.” I believe God will grant us experiences that prompt us to testify too. It's just that, for some reason, Jesus usually shows up undercover – even in you and me.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
I don’t know why there aren’t more movies about John the Baptist – he is a strong, odd and gripping character. If I were to make a film of the scene we’re exploring this week, it would be a Mission Impossible-style spy thriller with secret agents lurking about (let’s give the soundtrack to Johnny Rivers - even if it does sound like he’s singing “secret Asian man”…).
Spy thrillers come to mind when I read how John was able to identify Jesus as the Son of God. I imagine John asking his handler, “So, how am I going to know my contact?” And the reply, through an encoded message, “Here’s the sign – he’s going to be in the crowd coming to the river for baptism… he’ll be the one with a dove on his head…” And, of course, John will know “dove” is code for the Holy Spirit. “He’s the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit,” the message will continue, before dematerializing into a small pile of sand.
And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’”
In Matthew’s account of the story, which we read last week, John is keenly aware of who Jesus is. In Luke’s account they are cousins. John’s Gospel draws on other traditions, and he wants to establish the validity of John the Baptist’s testimony. Hence this theme of identity and recognition.
So let’s go with that. How do we identify Jesus in our lives, since he isn't walking around with flesh and bones? How do we recognize the Holy Spirit, since s/he rarely assumes that dove disguise these days? How do we perceive when we’re in Christ’s presence when we can’t rely on our five senses?
Some people feel it, a physical rush of some kind that seems connected with the Spirit. Sometimes we feel filled with joy or a desire to praise, or even weeping. Those are some internal ways – you might ask Jesus to bless you with presence in that way.
Or use the imagination God gave you, and ask Jesus if he would meet you somewhere in your mind's eye. Get still and wait and see what kind of scene unfolds, inside or outside, familiar or unknown… what do you see, hear, smell? If you sense Jesus joining you in that place, does conversation unfold? Don’t rush it. Be attentive to what you perceive.
The other way he said we’d know him is in other people: in other Christ-followers; in the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the sick, the lonely, the imprisoned. When you find yourself with someone in need, are you ever aware of Christ in that person? We can pray, “Jesus, let me see you.” It's a really good prayer when someone is annoying us.
John the Baptist says, “And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.” I believe God will grant us experiences that prompt us to testify too. It's just that, for some reason, Jesus usually shows up undercover – even in you and me.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-12-26 - You and Jesus
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
John the Baptist is front and center during Advent, and rarely seen the rest of the church year. Yet here he is in January, popping up as an eyewitness to the identity of Christ. His testimony is remarkable: The next day [John] saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.”
"The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." That’s a mouthful, signifying from the beginning of the story the sacrificial aspect of Jesus’ mission. And John is very sure of who Jesus is. “This is the one I was talking about, who I said was coming, who is greater than I. He is why I do this!” If John is unhappy about his season waning while another’s ripens, he doesn’t show it. He is clear about who he is and who Jesus is. That’s where spiritual maturity begins.
It is generally unwise to define ourselves in comparison to someone else. But if that someone else is Jesus, it can help give us a clearer picture. Here’s a prayer experiment to try today: Sit quietly, maybe light a candle, let your breathing slow and deepen, let yourself get centered. Close your eyes, and picture yourself. Where are you? What are you wearing? What do you hear, smell, see? What do you think about what you see? What do you feel?
Then bring Jesus into the picture. Imagine him sitting with you. No need to stress about what he looks like or if you have a visual sense of him – just let him be a presence. How do you look next to him? Who do you see when you look at yourself through his eyes?
If feelings come up that you want to speak, go ahead – that’s prayer, you talking with God. If you hear a response from Jesus, that’s great. That’s prayer, God talking with you.
If visualizing in prayer isn’t for you, just ask God, “Who do you see when you look at me?” Wait to see if you sense a response; I often find they come quickly and are surprising. God wants us to know who we are in God’s eyes.
When we look at ourselves with Jesus in the picture, we know at least three things:
John the Baptist is front and center during Advent, and rarely seen the rest of the church year. Yet here he is in January, popping up as an eyewitness to the identity of Christ. His testimony is remarkable: The next day [John] saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.”
"The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." That’s a mouthful, signifying from the beginning of the story the sacrificial aspect of Jesus’ mission. And John is very sure of who Jesus is. “This is the one I was talking about, who I said was coming, who is greater than I. He is why I do this!” If John is unhappy about his season waning while another’s ripens, he doesn’t show it. He is clear about who he is and who Jesus is. That’s where spiritual maturity begins.
It is generally unwise to define ourselves in comparison to someone else. But if that someone else is Jesus, it can help give us a clearer picture. Here’s a prayer experiment to try today: Sit quietly, maybe light a candle, let your breathing slow and deepen, let yourself get centered. Close your eyes, and picture yourself. Where are you? What are you wearing? What do you hear, smell, see? What do you think about what you see? What do you feel?
Then bring Jesus into the picture. Imagine him sitting with you. No need to stress about what he looks like or if you have a visual sense of him – just let him be a presence. How do you look next to him? Who do you see when you look at yourself through his eyes?
If feelings come up that you want to speak, go ahead – that’s prayer, you talking with God. If you hear a response from Jesus, that’s great. That’s prayer, God talking with you.
If visualizing in prayer isn’t for you, just ask God, “Who do you see when you look at me?” Wait to see if you sense a response; I often find they come quickly and are surprising. God wants us to know who we are in God’s eyes.
When we look at ourselves with Jesus in the picture, we know at least three things:
- we know we’re not God;
- we know we’re not perfect;
- we know we’re loved.
And when we know these things about ourselves, we tend to be gentler with ourselves, more compassionate with other people, and a whole lot freer with our love. That’s what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, an apostle of the Good News, and a saint in God's church.
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© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
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© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-9-26 - Affirmation
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
We could name the "movements" in Jesus' baptism: Assent, Immersion, Emergence, Anointing, and then Affirmation. Something extraordinary occurs when Jesus comes up from that river - not only does the Spirit of God descend upon him in a visible form, there is an auditory phenomenon as well: And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
Here we see all three persons in the One Triune God participating in the launch of Jesus’ mission on earth: the Spirit, the Father, and the one whom the Father claims as Son. When early church thinkers were working out theological implications of the Good News, scriptural passages like this helped to inform the doctrines of the Trinity and of Jesus’ nature as fully human and fully divine. Jesus, alone of humans born of woman, is called God’s Son.
That is the only part of the baptism unique to him. The pattern in Jesus’ baptism, Assent, Immersion, Emergence, Anointing and Affirmation, is there for us as well, if more internalized. We, or someone acting on our behalf, offer assent to the Story into which we are baptized. We undergo the dying and rising symbolically, in our interaction with the water, whether it’s actual immersion or not. We are adopted as members of God’s household through our spiritual bond with the Son. We receive the Spirit’s anointing with oil of chrism, and the Father’s affirmation, God’s eternal “yes," claimed as beloved forever.
When have you heard God's "yes" spoken into you? Sometimes it comes through human agents, sometimes we feel it directly, inside. Remember those moments of spiritual affirmation, of being loved by your Creator for who you are. Recall them in moments when faith seems difficult, or you can’t see your way forward. (Here is a beautiful song about that, Casting Crowns' The Voice of Truth.) More than any other message I have ever received in prayer I have heard God say, “I love you. Rest in my love.” Those are prayer times I can return to, remember, reclaim.
Let's note that the Father’s naming and claiming Jesus as his own, "the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased," comes before Jesus has actually “done” anything. His first thirty years appear to have been spent with his family, sharing his earthly father’s building craft. His public ministry is still to come – and yet already, the Father proclaims himself “Well pleased.” All Jesus has done so far is show up!
I hope and pray we can remember this ourselves in moments when we feel inadequate or less than lovable – God loves us just as we show up and offer ourselves for relationship. There is nothing we can or need to do to earn that love – God already loves us “the most.” As we are able to accept that, we are able to show that kind of love to ourselves, and to one another, and beyond. What the world needs now...
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
We could name the "movements" in Jesus' baptism: Assent, Immersion, Emergence, Anointing, and then Affirmation. Something extraordinary occurs when Jesus comes up from that river - not only does the Spirit of God descend upon him in a visible form, there is an auditory phenomenon as well: And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
Here we see all three persons in the One Triune God participating in the launch of Jesus’ mission on earth: the Spirit, the Father, and the one whom the Father claims as Son. When early church thinkers were working out theological implications of the Good News, scriptural passages like this helped to inform the doctrines of the Trinity and of Jesus’ nature as fully human and fully divine. Jesus, alone of humans born of woman, is called God’s Son.
That is the only part of the baptism unique to him. The pattern in Jesus’ baptism, Assent, Immersion, Emergence, Anointing and Affirmation, is there for us as well, if more internalized. We, or someone acting on our behalf, offer assent to the Story into which we are baptized. We undergo the dying and rising symbolically, in our interaction with the water, whether it’s actual immersion or not. We are adopted as members of God’s household through our spiritual bond with the Son. We receive the Spirit’s anointing with oil of chrism, and the Father’s affirmation, God’s eternal “yes," claimed as beloved forever.
When have you heard God's "yes" spoken into you? Sometimes it comes through human agents, sometimes we feel it directly, inside. Remember those moments of spiritual affirmation, of being loved by your Creator for who you are. Recall them in moments when faith seems difficult, or you can’t see your way forward. (Here is a beautiful song about that, Casting Crowns' The Voice of Truth.) More than any other message I have ever received in prayer I have heard God say, “I love you. Rest in my love.” Those are prayer times I can return to, remember, reclaim.
Let's note that the Father’s naming and claiming Jesus as his own, "the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased," comes before Jesus has actually “done” anything. His first thirty years appear to have been spent with his family, sharing his earthly father’s building craft. His public ministry is still to come – and yet already, the Father proclaims himself “Well pleased.” All Jesus has done so far is show up!
I hope and pray we can remember this ourselves in moments when we feel inadequate or less than lovable – God loves us just as we show up and offer ourselves for relationship. There is nothing we can or need to do to earn that love – God already loves us “the most.” As we are able to accept that, we are able to show that kind of love to ourselves, and to one another, and beyond. What the world needs now...
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-8-26 - Anointing
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.
Nothing like being dive-bombed by the Holy Spirit! Of course, it only says the Spirit of God descended like a dove… But the literal-minded imagine a bird landing on Jesus’ head, a comical image that might obscure the power of what gospel writers describe here: the moment when the Spirit of God, present at Jesus’ conception, fully indwells him. This is when Jesus moves fully into his identity as the Christ, “the Anointed One.” (“Christ” is from the same Greek word for oil, or ointment, from which we get “chrism.”) This is the moment when his public ministry begins, when he takes up his mission of transformation and redemption.
We receive the Spirit at baptism as well. We are baptized in water and by invocation of the three-fold name of God, and then we are anointed with oil, signed with a cross on our foreheads. That oil signifies the Holy Spirit. In some early East Syrian baptismal rites, the oil was as important as the water, or more, so crucial was it to convey the power of the Spirit to be released in the newly baptized.
The gift of the Holy Spirit is often our most neglected, like a punch bowl gathering dust in the cupboard, or the wedding china left in the buffet except for “special occasions.” Yet St. Paul calls this gift of the Spirit a down-payment on our inheritance that we can access now. He writes to the Ephesians, “When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”
In essence, we have a huge inheritance in the bank, which will never run out. At baptism we receive the card and the pin number. We can leave it sitting there – or we can use it to bring spiritual power to bear on all kinds of pain and brokenness and stuckness we encounter in ourselves and others. Among the gifts Paul cites are insight, hope and spiritual power, which we can exercise now.
Are you aware of the presence of the Spirit in you and around you? When do you access that power? Sometimes we can simply invite the Spirit to make him/herself known (the Spirit has no gender… but is not an “it.”)
Today you might sit quietly for a time, get comfortable, both feet on the floor, spine straight but relaxed, and pray, “Come, Holy Spirit. Fill me. Let me know you’re here.” And wait, with attention.
Or, if you’re confronted with a tense or challenging situation, invoke the Spirit into it, praying silently, “Guide me, give me the right words, protect me…,” whatever seems right. Think how engaged our churches can be in our communities when we all exercise the gift of the Spirit!
We aren’t always aware of such cosmic activity at baptism – yet I believe that each time we enact that sacrament, the heavens are opened, and the Spirit of God descends and alights on us. And once the heavens are opened to us, we have lifetime access to the God of the universe. Lifetime, and beyond.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.
Nothing like being dive-bombed by the Holy Spirit! Of course, it only says the Spirit of God descended like a dove… But the literal-minded imagine a bird landing on Jesus’ head, a comical image that might obscure the power of what gospel writers describe here: the moment when the Spirit of God, present at Jesus’ conception, fully indwells him. This is when Jesus moves fully into his identity as the Christ, “the Anointed One.” (“Christ” is from the same Greek word for oil, or ointment, from which we get “chrism.”) This is the moment when his public ministry begins, when he takes up his mission of transformation and redemption.
We receive the Spirit at baptism as well. We are baptized in water and by invocation of the three-fold name of God, and then we are anointed with oil, signed with a cross on our foreheads. That oil signifies the Holy Spirit. In some early East Syrian baptismal rites, the oil was as important as the water, or more, so crucial was it to convey the power of the Spirit to be released in the newly baptized.
The gift of the Holy Spirit is often our most neglected, like a punch bowl gathering dust in the cupboard, or the wedding china left in the buffet except for “special occasions.” Yet St. Paul calls this gift of the Spirit a down-payment on our inheritance that we can access now. He writes to the Ephesians, “When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”
In essence, we have a huge inheritance in the bank, which will never run out. At baptism we receive the card and the pin number. We can leave it sitting there – or we can use it to bring spiritual power to bear on all kinds of pain and brokenness and stuckness we encounter in ourselves and others. Among the gifts Paul cites are insight, hope and spiritual power, which we can exercise now.
Are you aware of the presence of the Spirit in you and around you? When do you access that power? Sometimes we can simply invite the Spirit to make him/herself known (the Spirit has no gender… but is not an “it.”)
Today you might sit quietly for a time, get comfortable, both feet on the floor, spine straight but relaxed, and pray, “Come, Holy Spirit. Fill me. Let me know you’re here.” And wait, with attention.
Or, if you’re confronted with a tense or challenging situation, invoke the Spirit into it, praying silently, “Guide me, give me the right words, protect me…,” whatever seems right. Think how engaged our churches can be in our communities when we all exercise the gift of the Spirit!
We aren’t always aware of such cosmic activity at baptism – yet I believe that each time we enact that sacrament, the heavens are opened, and the Spirit of God descends and alights on us. And once the heavens are opened to us, we have lifetime access to the God of the universe. Lifetime, and beyond.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-7-26 - Water
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
In Robert Duvall’s great film, The Apostle, there is a scene in which Duvall’s character, a wayward evangelist fleeing an attempted murder charge, stands waist deep in a river. Slowly he sinks down and submerges himself. He’s down there awhile – we wonder if he’s coming back up. Then, just as slowly, he breaks through the surface. From here on he assumes a new identity and adopts a new name, “The Apostle EF.” We never quite know whether this is grace or scheming – that’s part of the power of the film. The scene infers, though, that he was baptizing himself, allowing his old identity to die and a new one to be born.
Baptism is the premiere rite of new beginnings. In the church, it has long been the entry point for life in Christ, though sometimes it comes long after faith has taken hold. One reason baptism always includes water is because Jesus was baptized in water. “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.” Some reason that Jesus in this way sanctified all waters.
We all begin life in the water, the amniotic fluid in which we grow before birth. And, of course, water can also be a place of death – imagery which our baptismal texts emphasize as the drowning of the old self and the rising with Christ of the new, eternal soul. Christian baptismal rites emphasize both birth and death – some early baptismal fonts were designed to suggest wombs, tombs or both.
I find it a great blessing that an element we encounter numerous times each day should be the sacramental sign of our new life in Christ, for we can be constantly reminded of our status as beloved of God. Martin Luther is said to have instructed followers, “When you wash your face, remember your baptism.” I would go further and say, “When you have a bath or a shower, remember your baptism. When you go swimming or pass a puddle, or fill your coffee pot or water glass, remember your baptism.”
If you can’t remember yours, spend a little time today imagining it in prayer. What water source would you choose? A font, a pool, a beach, a water fall, a fountain?
Would you like to go into the water or have it poured over you? In your imagination, can you see those waters as healing? What do you want healed? Regenerated? Renewed?
There was a time when my prayer life consisted of meeting Jesus in my imagination at a rocky beach– sometimes he had a fire there and we talked. More than once, he invited me to wade into the sea with him, a profound reminder of my baptism.
Wherever and whenever you were baptized, and whoever was there, remember that Jesus also was there through his Spirit, sanctifying the water in which you were born anew. That birth process takes a lifetime – and we can dip into those waters any time we want.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
In Robert Duvall’s great film, The Apostle, there is a scene in which Duvall’s character, a wayward evangelist fleeing an attempted murder charge, stands waist deep in a river. Slowly he sinks down and submerges himself. He’s down there awhile – we wonder if he’s coming back up. Then, just as slowly, he breaks through the surface. From here on he assumes a new identity and adopts a new name, “The Apostle EF.” We never quite know whether this is grace or scheming – that’s part of the power of the film. The scene infers, though, that he was baptizing himself, allowing his old identity to die and a new one to be born.
Baptism is the premiere rite of new beginnings. In the church, it has long been the entry point for life in Christ, though sometimes it comes long after faith has taken hold. One reason baptism always includes water is because Jesus was baptized in water. “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.” Some reason that Jesus in this way sanctified all waters.
We all begin life in the water, the amniotic fluid in which we grow before birth. And, of course, water can also be a place of death – imagery which our baptismal texts emphasize as the drowning of the old self and the rising with Christ of the new, eternal soul. Christian baptismal rites emphasize both birth and death – some early baptismal fonts were designed to suggest wombs, tombs or both.
I find it a great blessing that an element we encounter numerous times each day should be the sacramental sign of our new life in Christ, for we can be constantly reminded of our status as beloved of God. Martin Luther is said to have instructed followers, “When you wash your face, remember your baptism.” I would go further and say, “When you have a bath or a shower, remember your baptism. When you go swimming or pass a puddle, or fill your coffee pot or water glass, remember your baptism.”
If you can’t remember yours, spend a little time today imagining it in prayer. What water source would you choose? A font, a pool, a beach, a water fall, a fountain?
Would you like to go into the water or have it poured over you? In your imagination, can you see those waters as healing? What do you want healed? Regenerated? Renewed?
There was a time when my prayer life consisted of meeting Jesus in my imagination at a rocky beach– sometimes he had a fire there and we talked. More than once, he invited me to wade into the sea with him, a profound reminder of my baptism.
Wherever and whenever you were baptized, and whoever was there, remember that Jesus also was there through his Spirit, sanctifying the water in which you were born anew. That birth process takes a lifetime – and we can dip into those waters any time we want.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-6-26 - Submission
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
This coming Sunday we celebrate the story of Jesus’ baptism. For many decades in the early church, Jesus' birth was celebrated at Epiphany – Christmas didn't come around till the fourth century and did not become prevalent until the ninth. Epiphany was considered the holiest time of the year for baptisms. Baptism is where our formal life in Christ begins – and baptism is where Jesus of Nazareth formally became Jesus the Christ. Yet this momentous blessing almost didn’t occur: Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
Maybe the evangelist Matthew was a lawyer; so often he seems to be citing precedent, marshalling supporting arguments, and anticipating objections. He alone of the Gospel writers tells us that John was uncomfortable having Jesus submit to his ritual of repentance. After all, by the time Matthew is writing, Jesus is already risen and ascended, worshiped as the sinless Son of God. Matthew is getting ahead of those who would question why Jesus should have undergone a baptism of repentance. So here John objects to what he perceives as the lesser baptizing the greater: But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness.” Then he consented.
Jesus recognized that, if he was to share fully in our humanity, he needed to undergo this rite of cleansing. He willingly submits to this ritual, as later he submits to a corrupt trial and unjust sentence and hideous death. Over and over Jesus submits – and so subverts the sin and death from which he came to free us. Indeed, his Incarnation itself – God taking on the limitations of human flesh and nature, of boundedness in time and space – is submission, freely submitting in order to set others free.
Some in the church, reacting to centuries of forced submission endured by women, people of color, enslaved and oppressed persons, would remove the language and rituals of submission from our liturgies. Though I understand the sentiment, this may be throwing out the baby with the bath water. I suggest that the art of voluntary submission is at the heart of following Christ. It is central to the self-emptying love Jesus taught and lived. In following him, we voluntarily submit our prerogatives, our priorities, our time and resources, our wills, to the cause of self-giving love that heals and transforms the people around us. We might even say that submission is the heart of spiritual growth – learning to gradually submit ourselves to the love of God, overwhelming as that can be.
Where in your life do you submit – voluntarily, or not. (Not all submission is life-giving… yet in choosing to submit, we can often give life.)
And where do you sense yourself hanging on to avoid submitting? What might be asked of you? To trust more? To give more? To spend time with someone difficult? To change careers? Ask Jesus to show you where he is inviting you to submit more of yourself, your agenda, to his. How do you respond? Our “yes” sometimes takes a while…
Jesus does not ask of us anything he has not already done – perhaps that’s why the sinless one chose to go into the water that day. It was the beginning of his taking on the burden of our repentance. It was the beginning of life for us, there in that river.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
This coming Sunday we celebrate the story of Jesus’ baptism. For many decades in the early church, Jesus' birth was celebrated at Epiphany – Christmas didn't come around till the fourth century and did not become prevalent until the ninth. Epiphany was considered the holiest time of the year for baptisms. Baptism is where our formal life in Christ begins – and baptism is where Jesus of Nazareth formally became Jesus the Christ. Yet this momentous blessing almost didn’t occur: Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
Maybe the evangelist Matthew was a lawyer; so often he seems to be citing precedent, marshalling supporting arguments, and anticipating objections. He alone of the Gospel writers tells us that John was uncomfortable having Jesus submit to his ritual of repentance. After all, by the time Matthew is writing, Jesus is already risen and ascended, worshiped as the sinless Son of God. Matthew is getting ahead of those who would question why Jesus should have undergone a baptism of repentance. So here John objects to what he perceives as the lesser baptizing the greater: But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness.” Then he consented.
Jesus recognized that, if he was to share fully in our humanity, he needed to undergo this rite of cleansing. He willingly submits to this ritual, as later he submits to a corrupt trial and unjust sentence and hideous death. Over and over Jesus submits – and so subverts the sin and death from which he came to free us. Indeed, his Incarnation itself – God taking on the limitations of human flesh and nature, of boundedness in time and space – is submission, freely submitting in order to set others free.
Some in the church, reacting to centuries of forced submission endured by women, people of color, enslaved and oppressed persons, would remove the language and rituals of submission from our liturgies. Though I understand the sentiment, this may be throwing out the baby with the bath water. I suggest that the art of voluntary submission is at the heart of following Christ. It is central to the self-emptying love Jesus taught and lived. In following him, we voluntarily submit our prerogatives, our priorities, our time and resources, our wills, to the cause of self-giving love that heals and transforms the people around us. We might even say that submission is the heart of spiritual growth – learning to gradually submit ourselves to the love of God, overwhelming as that can be.
Where in your life do you submit – voluntarily, or not. (Not all submission is life-giving… yet in choosing to submit, we can often give life.)
And where do you sense yourself hanging on to avoid submitting? What might be asked of you? To trust more? To give more? To spend time with someone difficult? To change careers? Ask Jesus to show you where he is inviting you to submit more of yourself, your agenda, to his. How do you respond? Our “yes” sometimes takes a while…
Jesus does not ask of us anything he has not already done – perhaps that’s why the sinless one chose to go into the water that day. It was the beginning of his taking on the burden of our repentance. It was the beginning of life for us, there in that river.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-5-26 - Epiphany
You can listen to this reflection here. The Gospel appointed for Epiphany is here.
Until you’re there, you’re not. This is a truth of journeying we rediscover any time we’re racing to a destination, a reunion, or enduring travel delays. We can only be where we are at any given moment. Until you’re there, you’re not.
The sages who had come so many miles searching for the new king, whose star they’d seen rising in their night skies, were anxious to get there, even if they weren’t quite sure what “there” would turn out to be. They had invested a great deal in making this trip, trusting the stellar guidance as they read it. Maybe folks at home had called theirs a fool’s errand; maybe they’d read the stars wrong. This Herod fellow certainly hadn’t heard anything about a new king; he just sent them off toward Bethlehem. Until they were “there,” they weren’t.
But they had that star as a beacon: ...they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.
Hard to imagine what these star-followers felt when the guidance held true. Whether real men or mythic figures – or both – these sages were overwhelmed with joy when they were led to a simple house. If they were surprised to find there an ordinary young family, we see no indication in their actions: On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
What a way to greet a king, even one who looked nothing like a king: in a house, not a palace; attended only by his mother. Our wise travelers were unfazed. They knew they had arrived where they needed to be. They had come with three goals – they wanted to see, they wanted to honor, they wanted to gift. And when they had done what they came to do, they went home, guided by the wisdom that had brought them to Bethlehem, to be ready for the next adventure.
We can find in their goals a guide to our devotion:
Until you’re there, you’re not. This is a truth of journeying we rediscover any time we’re racing to a destination, a reunion, or enduring travel delays. We can only be where we are at any given moment. Until you’re there, you’re not.
The sages who had come so many miles searching for the new king, whose star they’d seen rising in their night skies, were anxious to get there, even if they weren’t quite sure what “there” would turn out to be. They had invested a great deal in making this trip, trusting the stellar guidance as they read it. Maybe folks at home had called theirs a fool’s errand; maybe they’d read the stars wrong. This Herod fellow certainly hadn’t heard anything about a new king; he just sent them off toward Bethlehem. Until they were “there,” they weren’t.
But they had that star as a beacon: ...they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.
Hard to imagine what these star-followers felt when the guidance held true. Whether real men or mythic figures – or both – these sages were overwhelmed with joy when they were led to a simple house. If they were surprised to find there an ordinary young family, we see no indication in their actions: On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
What a way to greet a king, even one who looked nothing like a king: in a house, not a palace; attended only by his mother. Our wise travelers were unfazed. They knew they had arrived where they needed to be. They had come with three goals – they wanted to see, they wanted to honor, they wanted to gift. And when they had done what they came to do, they went home, guided by the wisdom that had brought them to Bethlehem, to be ready for the next adventure.
We can find in their goals a guide to our devotion:
- To want to see Jesus. Make that a prayer; ask the Spirit to expand your faith vision to see Jesus wherever he might be in your life this week, in prayer, in other people, in the poor, at communion…
- To want to honour Jesus. Offer him praises, adoration in your heart, with your voice, in your actions, in song…
- To give him precious gifts. What that is precious to you do you want to offer Jesus? Your time? Energy? Relationships? Love? Maybe ask what he would like you to give… you might be surprised at the answer.
This journey of seeing, honouring, giving is one we make over and over again, arriving “there” only to leave again. Each time we arrive we are strengthened for the next trip, which might be in five minutes, or five weeks. And on each journey we see the sights somewhat differently.
And always our destination is the same – Home. Until we’re there, we’re not.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
And always our destination is the same – Home. Until we’re there, we’re not.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-2-26 - My Father's House
You can listen to this reflection here. Today's gospel reading is here.
I wonder if we would have as vivid a sense of Jesus’ humanity if the Gospels never showed him to us as an adolescent, seeking his independence, schooling a bunch of adults, giving his parents some “lip.” Only Luke tells this story, and we rarely hear it in church, but it gives us our only picture of Jesus before he turns up at the Jordan at the age of 30 as a full-fledged adult about to embark on God’s mission. Here we see a tantalizing glimpse into how that mission may have been unfolding in him.
This vignette takes place at Passover, when Jesus’ family go to Jerusalem with friends and relations to celebrate the holy days. When they start their return journey, Jesus stays behind without telling anyone; his parents assume he’s with others in the entourage and for a full day no one notices he’s not with them. Frantic, his parents return to Jerusalem and search high and low for three days and where do they find him?
After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, ‘Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.’ He said to them, ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’
Only a teenager could so blithely ignore the emotional turmoil of his family, arrogantly sure he is right. “What’s wrong with you guys? Didn’t you read my mind?” (I kind of hear him say these words in the voice of Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory..) But of course this is Jesus, son of God and son of Mary – so in a sense he is right, just stating facts.
I wonder how those words landed on his parents. They must have held all those prophecies about their firstborn in their hearts all these years, perhaps hoping they would never be realized. Did those words, “My Father’s house” strike fear into Mary’s heart, pain into Joseph’s? Luke says only, But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.
Mary had to do a lot of treasuring things in her heart, the gifts as well as the ache and anxiety about when that sword would pierce her heart. But it appears that after this incident, things returned to normal in that household in Nazareth. Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour, had friends, went to parties and weddings, and presumably took up a position in his earthly father’s business. Until he took his position in his heavenly father’s business.
That is where we will meet him next in the Gospels.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
I wonder if we would have as vivid a sense of Jesus’ humanity if the Gospels never showed him to us as an adolescent, seeking his independence, schooling a bunch of adults, giving his parents some “lip.” Only Luke tells this story, and we rarely hear it in church, but it gives us our only picture of Jesus before he turns up at the Jordan at the age of 30 as a full-fledged adult about to embark on God’s mission. Here we see a tantalizing glimpse into how that mission may have been unfolding in him.
This vignette takes place at Passover, when Jesus’ family go to Jerusalem with friends and relations to celebrate the holy days. When they start their return journey, Jesus stays behind without telling anyone; his parents assume he’s with others in the entourage and for a full day no one notices he’s not with them. Frantic, his parents return to Jerusalem and search high and low for three days and where do they find him?
After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, ‘Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.’ He said to them, ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’
Only a teenager could so blithely ignore the emotional turmoil of his family, arrogantly sure he is right. “What’s wrong with you guys? Didn’t you read my mind?” (I kind of hear him say these words in the voice of Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory..) But of course this is Jesus, son of God and son of Mary – so in a sense he is right, just stating facts.
I wonder how those words landed on his parents. They must have held all those prophecies about their firstborn in their hearts all these years, perhaps hoping they would never be realized. Did those words, “My Father’s house” strike fear into Mary’s heart, pain into Joseph’s? Luke says only, But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.
Mary had to do a lot of treasuring things in her heart, the gifts as well as the ache and anxiety about when that sword would pierce her heart. But it appears that after this incident, things returned to normal in that household in Nazareth. Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour, had friends, went to parties and weddings, and presumably took up a position in his earthly father’s business. Until he took his position in his heavenly father’s business.
That is where we will meet him next in the Gospels.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
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