You probably have heard before that we humans can live without food for 30 to 40 days, maybe even longer, but we cannot live without some form of water intake for more than about three days.

In actual fact, real thirst will make you feel miserable already after the first day without water or water containing food or fluids. The reason behind it is that we need water for almost every function in the body.

Our blood needs enough water so it won't get too thick, which might cause headaches first, then weakness and finally blood clots and even stroke or heart attack.

But not just the blood, every cell needs water to let nutrients and minerals, which get dissolved in water, pass through the cell membranes. Our cells comprise between 60 per cent and 90 per cent water. Our nerves need water (and some sodium) to pass on the electric signals inside each nerve cell and the chemical signals between nerve cells.

Even the discs in our spine need water. They actually store water under extreme pressure to become cushions to absorb bumps and give us flexibility, and people who are “used” to being dehydrated, because they don't drink enough daily and lost the sense of thirst in part, often suffer from back pain because the disks lose water and with that their form and flexibility.

Our body needs about two litres, thus about half a gallon of water every day. Some of it we get with our foods, but most of it we need to drink. In short, water is essential for all life.

That is why scientists look for traces of water on other planets when they try to determine whether there may have been any life there.

Water plays a very important role in the Bible as well. The creation story talks about God creating it, and then life came first from the water.

The primogenitors of Israel, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, are mentioned to have dug wells all over the land of Canaan. It seems they were true experts in it and the whole land benefited from their knowledge and hard work.

Later Moses had to find water in the desert for the Israelite on their way to the Promised Land. He too, with God’s help, seemed to have a special sense to find water even in the desert.

Actually more than 1,500 years after the time of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the times of Jesus, people still referred to Abraham, Isaac or Jacob when talking about particular wells.

When Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, he rested at a well Jacob had dug, John 4 tells us. There he had a conversation with a Samaritan woman who he had asked for a drink of water. That was very strange back then, as Jews and Samaritans had very little contact. However, Jesus turned the conversation to living water he could give the woman.

Just a few verses earlier, in Chapter 3, Jesus had explained to a Pharisee, Nicodemus, that he should be “reborn by water and by spirit”, talking about our baptism.

Baptism and the New Covenant

Baptism became the sign of the New Covenant in Christ. Through Baptism we become God’s Children, part of the family: Christians. Thus baptism is the living or life giving water, new life that is.

It is interesting that Christ chose water as a symbol for this New Covenant. Water has many aspects. As mentioned before, all living things need water, but water can also kill.

On an island surrounded by deep waters we understand this maybe better than others. People can drown in the waters. At the same time, water can be so much fun.

Thousands of people come to our beaches every summer just to enjoy our water. Water can also nurture our souls. Just sitting and looking at a body of water can relax us and refresh us mentally. And water can also cleanse and purify. We wash our clothing, bodies, cars, homes and dishes with water.

The water of Baptism reminds us of all those aspects: death of the old life, resurrection to new life, joy, purification and, as Psalm 23:2b-3a puts it: “He leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul”.

Martin Luther, the 16th-century reformer, put the meaning of the Water of Baptism in his Small Catechism this way: “Baptism signifies that the old Adam in us is to be drowned by daily sorrow and repentance, and perish with all sins and evil lusts; and that the new man should daily come forth again and rise, who shall live before God in righteousness and purity for ever.”

We are not alone

The last commandment the risen Christ gave his disciples was about baptism as well (Matthew 28:18b-20; NIV): “All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

This Great Commission is both, a charge and a confirmation. Christ promises us that we are not alone in this work. He is on our side like a good shepherd.

Once we realise that He is with us always, we can begin to worry less and instead pray more, talk with Christ, let him know what is on our mind, what is going well and what might need improvement in our lives, for what we are grateful and what we might still need.

Faith then becomes a confident trust in God that we can rely on him, to be there when we need him, going with us through highs and lows, thick and thin.

Yes, “pray more, worry less” can become our mantra especially when life seems tough, when the world is topsy-turvy and makes no sense to us.

After all the Bible promises us (John 3:16-17; NIV): “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

• Karsten Decker was the pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Bermuda from 2010 to 2017, and after returning from Germany is now the temporary pulpit supply at Centenary United Methodist Church in Smith’s