Come to the water

Come to the water, hear the waves roll; 

Quiet and powerful, touching the soul.

God spread these waters over the earth

For us to find new life and new birth.

 

Come to the water, hear the brook flow;

Small streams, great rivers help life to grow. 

Jesus was baptized in one like this; 

Sharing our burden, sharing our bliss.

 

Come to the water, see the font full.

Feel how our souls are drawn by its pull.  

Sacrament living, filling the heart,

All in the power of God's holy art. 

 

Think and remember how you once came,

Then went on your way never the same. 

Come to the water! Hear once again

How God still loves you as God did then.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, January 2023.

MUSIC: Tune ADELAIDE, George C. Stebbins, 1907. 

I have found that if I sit long enough within earshot of a beach, something will come. In this case the steady rhythm of wave upon sand worked its way to the waters of the earth, and then to the waters of baptism. This one may lean slightly toward adult baptism, which does still happen. The tune represents another repurposing of those tunes that were the stuff of my church childhood.