In water we grow, secure in the womb, and speechlessly know love's safety and room. Baptizing and blessing we publish for good the freeing, caressing safe keeping of God. In water we wash: the dirt of each day, its trouble and rush are carried away. In Christ re-created by love's cleansing art, self-will and self-hatred dissolve and depart. In water we dive, and cannot draw breath, then surface alive, rebounding from death. Our old self goes under, in Christ dead and drowned. We rise, washed in wonder, by love clad and crowned. In water we dwell, for by its deep flow through bloodstream and cell, we live, think, and grow. Praise God, love outflowing, whose well of new birth baptizes our knowing, and waters the earth.