The church is a womb. The church is likened to the waters of the Jordan in which Jesus was baptized. The Jordan River was like a womb, from which Jesus came forth as the Messiah. So the church, like the Jordan, is the womb from which the new babe in Christ comes forth. . . . The church is the womb that nourishes new life. The waters of the womb protect and care for the new creation that is being formed. As Jesus was disclosed in the waters of the Jordan as the second Adam, so too the waters of the church reveal our new birth in him. The church is the womb in which our spiritual life is gestated. — Robert Webber, The Divine Embrace: Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2006), 224-225.