Happy Monday, friends, and welcome to a new series of faith-meets-fandoms blog posts! This month, I’m really enjoying reflecting and studying the four elements of the Avatar: The Last Airbender world, and I’m sharing my learning here. This week’s installment focuses on ATLA waterbending and how it relates to who God is and who we are in Him. Hope you enjoy!
Fandom: “Water is the element of change. The people of the Water Tribe are capable of adapting to many things. They have a sense of community and love that holds them together through anything.” – Uncle Iroh, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Verses: Jeremiah 2:13, 3:22,17:7-8, 14, John 4:10-11, 13-14, 7:37-38, Ezekiel 47:1-12
Truth: God is the fountain of living water, source of life, hope, peace, and security.
The fandom: ATLA airbending
Water is the first element that we’re introduced to in the Avatar: The Last Airbender series, and it’s the first that Aang has to master as the Avatar. Here are some observations about ATLA waterbending and the Water Tribes from Fandom.com’s ATLA wiki:
- Waterbending is powered by the moon and its phases
- the WAter Tribes learned waterbending by observing how the moon pushes and pulls the tides
- Waterbending style is fluid and graceful, inconcert with the environment
- Waterbending is versatile, allowing benders to turn a defense into an offense and use an opponent’s energy against them
- Waterbending can affect the environment if the bender loses their temper (like Katara getting mad at Sokka in Episode 1 and causing a mini-avalanche)
- The fighting style of waterbending frequently uses phase changes from liquid water to ice and snow
- When working together with an earthbender, a waterbender can purify a polluted water source by separating the earth from the water
- Waterbenders can manipulate plants by bending the water inside them
- Some waterbenders have healing abilities, which allow them to heal injuries
- Waterbending is based on a style of taijiquan (also known as t’ai chi ch’uan, or tai chi for short), an internal Chinese martial art that features slow movements and elegant forms that evoke the feel of flowing water
Here’s the first installment of this month’s series: ATLA airbending – breath of life.
GOD is: living water
Here are some observations on the character of God baesd on the traits of ATLA waterbending and the verses below:
- God is the fountain of living water, providing refreshment and nourishment to all of creation
- God is faithful to provide for those who seek Him
- God is our healer, willing and able to heal those who come to Him
- God is generous and will never run out of resources to provide
We are: a fountain of living water through Christ
Here are some observations on who we are and the goodness we have access to through Christ:
- We have a fountain of living water inside us, giving us eternal life
- We have access to a Healer who can remedy both physical and spiritual wounds
- We have peace in the midst of any and all circumstances, knowing that we will always be provided for
The verses: water, living water
For this week’s study, I wanted to include some verses about water or the idea of “living water” as well as some on healing and adaptability. Here are some of the ones I found:
Also the list of alllllll the verses from my original study time : )
For My people have committed two evils: They have abandoned Me, The fountain of living waters, To carve out for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That do not hold water.
Jeremiah 2:13
This verse compares God to a fountain of living waters, which provide refreshment and nourishment for all the created things. It’s also a reprimand against Israel, who had chosen to follow other gods instead of Jehovah the Lord. I think it’s really interesting to see that this rather negative verse is shortly followed by this promise:
“Return, you faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness.” “Behold, we come to You; For You are the LORD our God.
Jeremiah 3:22
So God is both a fountain of living water AND a willing healer for those who come to Him. Very cool!
This pattern happens again in Jeremiah 17…
Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, And whose trust is the LORD. For he will be like a tree planted by the water That extends its roots by a stream, And does not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought, Nor cease to yield fruit.
Jeremiah 17:7-8
There is again a comparison between staying close to God and being nourished and refreshed by a constant stream of water. This verse also speaks to the adaptability of waterbending and the ability to adjust to anything that comes our way, never worrying about external circumstances.
Just a few verses later, Jeremiah remarks that “the heart is deceitful and desperately sick; who can know it?” and then there’s this verse:
Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed; Save me and I will be saved, For You are my praise.
Jeremiah 17:14
Once again, there is a promise of healing, and confidence that the Lord can and will heal us.
In the New Testament, Jesus of Nazareth makes His first declaration of being the Messiah to a woman at a well in Samaria. Here’s what He says to her:
Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.
John 4:13-14
Once we are saved, accepting the Living Water that Jesus offers, we will never be spiritually thirsty again. I highly recommend looking into this passage for yourself; it’s super cool!
Here’s another passage where Jesus mentions living water:
Now on the last day, the great [day] of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'”
John 7:37-38
Once again, Jesus describes our hearts as believers having a fountain of living water. I love this verse, although the Scripture it references is something of a mystery to me. There isn’t a specific verse that quotes it directly that I can find, but there are a couple of passages that might be indirectly referenced. Here’s one:
Then he brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, water was flowing from under the threshold of the house toward the east, for the house faced east. And the water was flowing down from under, from the right side of the house, from south of the altar. And he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate, by the way facing east. And behold, water was spurting out from the south side. When the man went out toward the east with a line in his hand, he measured a thousand cubits, and he led me through the water, water [reaching] the ankles. Again he measured a thousand and led me through the water, water [reaching] the knees. Again he measured a thousand and led me through [the water,] water [reaching] the hips. Again he measured a thousand; [and it was] a river that I could not wade across, because the water had risen, [enough] water to swim in, a river that could not be crossed…
Ezekiel 47:1-5
I’m super excited to study this and other passages of Scripture this summer when I (theoretically) have more time in the morning to do so. This passage in particular is talking about the temple of God, which was symbolized as a river, a source of life, vitality, hope, and security in the arid climate of ancient Israel. Which is a super-cool thought in so many ways!
Here’s the commentary I like with more thoughts on Ezekiel 47.
Connecting ATLA waterbending with the Gospel story
I believe that the Gospel message, or the steps of becoming a believer and receiving the gift of salvation, can be broken up into three parts:
- I am. Who is God? What is He like? Who are we, and why are we here? Is there more to life than just the time between our birth and our death?
- God is the Creator and Lord of everything that we know. He is light, He is absolutely perfect, and He is all-powerful and all-knowing. He is also love, and He created each and every one of us to live in relationship with Him. We, on the other hand, are hard-wired to resist that relationship. Because of the rebellion of the first humans, our nature is to resist God’s rule, and we are therefore separated from Him. This separation is called sin. Our sin causes us to feel a void or emptiness that we try to fill with other relationships or pursuits (like pleasure or success), but that can only truly be filled with the relationship with God that we were meant to have. For more thoughts on this, check out this post.
- With you. How can I “fix” my sin problem and find joy, peace, and a relationship with God?
- There is only one way to restore the relationship that we were always meant to have with the God who created us, and that is Jesus. As we already discussed above, Jesus, the Son of God, came as a human to rescue and restore us while we were weak, helpless to fix ourselves. He showed the love of God for us by subjecting Himself to all of the indignities and suffering of the Cross, and died a criminal’s death, even though He had done no wrong. Because of His perfect sacrifice, Jesus was able to end the eternal separation between us and God, and now gives us the choice to receive His gift of salvation and eternal life. For more thoughts, see this post.
- Always. God shows His faithfulness and steadfast love for His people (originally Israel, now including all who believe in Him) throughout Scripture. He will always be with us, and gives us reminders of His presence and His truth through Holy Spirit, who inhabits every believer. Through Him, we have eternal forgiveness of sin, access to His throne room through prayer, and the ability to grow into the people we were always meant to be, free from the power of sin. After we die, we have the promise of Heaven, where we will see our Lord face to face and never have to suffer or be separated from Him again. For more thoughts, see this post.
I believe that the ideas symbolized by waterbending in the ATLA series, specifically those of flowing water and healing, connect with the “always” part of the Gospel story. Once we have come to Jesus and asked for forgiveness and salvation, He heals, cleanses, and redeems us. We have eternal forgiveness of our wrongdoings, and access to the nourishment and security that comes from God. We will never reach the end of His blessings and His resources, and He will never stop offering them to us.
And that, friends, is the Gospel according to ATLA waterbending.
Conclusion
I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s post on Avatar the Last Airbender and the idea of waterbending as a symbol of the fountain of living water in us. What did you think? Have any ideas for further study or reflection?
Happy fangirling!
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