Living Waters

Last Sabbath I went to a park and even though I've been to this park many times before, I went to a particular place in the park to watch the water. There's something about moving water that brings me both joy and peace (I tried my hardest to get a home with moving water on the property but that just wasn't in my budget at the moment).

Standing there, the words of "Just Around the Riverbend" from Disney's Pocohantas[1][2] popped into my head. No matter how many times I go to that spot, I'm never looking at the same water. Water is always moving forward—it may tumble off a cliff but it keeps moving forward...

There were rivers flowing out of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:10-14). There is a river in New Jerusalem (Revelation 22:1-2), and Messiah is the Living Water (John 4; Revelation 7:17). Water is an integral part of our life and the fluidity of how much symbolism can be placed upon it is astounding. Water can cause massive destruction (re: floods), but it can also soothe and heal. Moving water cuts a path where it needs to go, alterating the landscape around it, while trapped water conforms to the shape of it's prison. Bacteria nad other life forms can make their homes in water, causing it to turn murky and undrinkable, but water can also be purified from rocks and sand—often thought of as obstacles or otherwise undesirable—which cause it to be clear and drinkable. Water stinks and attrack pests like mosquitos when it is stagnaant...

Each of these are applicable to us as humans and how we move through life. I love that God gives us signs and examples in nature that testify to the same points He made in the Word!

References & Footnotes

1. "Just Around the Riverbend"
2. There's a lot wrong with the movie Pocohantas but as a child I definitely enjoyed the movie (after all, Pocohantas was the closest thing I had to a black princess during my childhood) and some of the songs do still pop in to my head from time to time. The point of mentioning the movie here is neither to endorse the movie nor start a discourse on what's wrong with it, rather it is simply to illustrate the train of thought I had during my walk.