(I know -- not possible – but just go along with me…)

One of my good friends runs the Surfrider Foundation (Jim Moriarty – you can find interviews with him on this blog) and he has been on the disposable water bottle issue for years.  In fact, ever since I met him he has been an advocate for stopping the use of single use plastics.  I agree.  Surfrider recently published this page that gives a pretty good explanation of why.

But I got to thinking about whether Jesus would have used a plastic water bottle or a snazzy SIGG aluminum jug.  The short answer is there is no way of knowing, but I had a couple of stray thoughts:

1. Jesus seemed to like nature (His nature) quite a bit.  He lived in it, taught in it, and used it as the subject of many of his parables.  He really did think a lot of it.  Strike against single use water bottles that pretty much do nothing good for nature.
2. Jesus was a minimalist.  He didn’t carry a heavy load around and it appears he may have been one of the first hyper-light backpackers.  So a reusable bottle would probably have been a good thing.  Why would he want to carry a case of water every day?
3. Jesus did like new wine skins.  Not really on point, but kind of a funny thought.
4. Jesus was more interested in pure water (the living kind) than lots of water (see 40 days in the barren waste land).
5. Jesus never really supported the idea of destruction – except for himself as the temple.
6. Jesus did not like wasting his time and it seems like making lots of bottles to hold water and then making them over and over and over again because we use them once and toss them is a big waste of time.
7. Jesus cared more about people than stuff – even nature – so that probably cuts in favor of a single use bottle if that is all they had around.
8. Jesus walked on water – not an island of plastics in the middle of the Sea of Galilee.