God With Us? - Not?

There are molecules of water flowing through the Red Deer River today that touched Jesus at his baptism, and there are molecules that touched Jesus that day in the Jordan, in every font, at every baptism. Water connects us. Water itself is a sign of God’s grace, a sacrament of a God who is both with us and within us.

That is one of the great proclamations of Scripture, that God is with us. But is God really with us? Do we proclaim that too glibly? Too easily? Too cheaply?

God is not with us in this, that we foul the water, and pollute the streams. God is not with us in this, that we fail to respect this sacred thing that surrounds us and connects us. God is not with us, but against us.