It once happened that a Japanese ship arrived at the Amazon Delta after a long voyage, and entered into the immense river. The voyage had taken longer than expected, and they had run short of drinking-water. They addressed the first ship they crossed, and asked for drinking-water by means of signals. The sailors on this ship were local people, and they answered also by signals: “Throw a bucket on the waters!” The Japanese thought for a moment that those sailors were joking, but then they did as told, and to their surprise, they found that the waters on which they were sailing were sweet waters. They could drink their fill.

To sail on sweet waters and to feel thirsty. Sad destiny of the human race. Rivers in Japan are short, since its islands do not give scope for a large course, and as they are short, they are also narrow and never reach the amplitude of a delta. That is why the Japanese sailors could not recognise a river in the large expanse of its gaping mouth. They thought it had to be still the ocean, and its waters would be salty. We are all islanders and know only short rivers. We get lost in the wide waters of the Amazon Delta.

The sweet water is here at hand. It is all around us. And we are tormented by thirst. We beg from all those we meet on our trip: Please, give us some water to drink! And when they tell us to throw down a bucket and haul it and drink from it, we think they are fooling us. Yet the water is here. No need to wait, to beg to buy. Salvation comes to meet us. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Maybe we missed it precisely because it was so close. Now we know.