When Water Speaks
Water m-o-v-e-s.
Rain falls, streams flow, rivers travel, and waterfalls let water fly.
Dew descends and rests on sleeping ground. Artesian wells bubble up from below. Water has so many modes of transportation —— droplets, sleet, snow, mist, hail, waves, winds, tides.
I sat by my favorite windows this week and meditated on the rain as it fell. The sound it made as it hit my tin roof peacefully lulled my emotions as if I were at a symphony listening for each trill and gong. And the leaves on the trees seemed to dance as droplets of water brought a perfect choreography with hundreds of other green-leaf-dancers around them.
Water moves….and water moves things.
Water saves our lives. Without it our lifespan hours decline drastically.
Water inspires us even as it simply does what it was created to do. It moves.
When you find a pond or puddle that has no outflow….little life can be sustained within its watery boundaries. The stagnant water will hold every germ and bacteria that flows into it and within minutes the infectious material will settle into the sedentary sludge below. Mosquitoes love the stillness as they grow larvae in endless supply in those stagnant waters.
The Dead Sea in Israel is the best imagery for the inability of stagnant waters to sustain life. Even though the sediment layers of soil under the Dead Sea are rife with salt deposits, life can not be sustained in those salty waters. IF there were an outlet for the waters to travel through —— then oxygenation of the salt waters would allow for life. Oceans and seas do, but they have movement. Not the Dead Sea. It’s always shocked me that a sea could be called “dead”. It earned its name only because it has no f-l-o-w. No movement of water. The water “dies” as it sits still.
Water thrives when it moves. Life thrives in moving waters.
The Creator made it to be this way. He could have chosen to create water and hold it perfectly still —— but somehow He wanted to help us see something about ourselves and perhaps something about Him as well. All creation tells us something about the great Creator. It’s a living poem in front of our eyes when we sit in a place with a view of it. It’s only that we people miss the poetic lines as we rush down roadways with painted lanes and hurry through our calendared tasks.
The first miracle Jesus revealed began with water and the last thing He did with His hands involved water as well. He turned the water into wine at His mother’s request and He washed His disciples feet with water using His Holy Hands. Notice that both activities were for the benefit of others. The last request He made was over His need of water….. “I thirst”…..was uttered from the cross. Even in death, water was needed. How many of us have ever longed to go back to that cross and hand our Savior cool, clean water to drink as He suffered to save our souls. Let yourself even now imagine being there beside that wooden cross soaked in His blood —— handing cool water up to the One who was paying the price for every sin you’d ever committed and covering payment for all those sins still ahead. He paid it in full. But on that cross, the One who created water was denied it.
Water was in the beginning, we find it first in Genesis 1:2… “and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” And on the second day of creation water is still addressed….. “God separates water from water.” And on day three of creation God is still working with water, separating it, placing it, forming seas. Water needed to be “arranged” before life-forms could thrive, for every living thing on this old earth needs good water.
Water moves.
Water moves in us and through us and because of it, we are able to live and move.
How is it possible that the average man is comprised of about 60% of water —— and get this, lean tissue has much more water within it than fat tissue. Women’s bodies are about 55% water. Babies form within an amniotic sac filled with……you’ve got it, amniotic fluid, which is mainly composed of —— water.
Controlled water-flow brings life and health. But water movement out of control brings death. Nothing can hold back water when if flows out of control. Nothing can stop it. It was water that destroyed all life on the earth, save Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark.
God parted the waters of the Red Sea for the Israelites to pass through —— but then hours later, nothing could stop the deadly impact when those same waters were released onto the Egyptian soldiers. God used water to rescue. God can also use water to destroy.
But day by day if we open our eyes to the poetic work of water around us, we will see over and over again how water brings life, sustains life, and feeds thirsty life. To do so —— it simply must MOVE.
What of us?
What of you and me?
Do we move what we have been given for the purpose of feeding, sustaining, bringing l-i-f-e to a dry parched world surrounding us?
Water teaches us so much through the poetry of its obedience to the One who created it —— water knows it has to m-o-v-e in order to carry and bring what is needed to sustain life. With no brain to think, and no legs to carry it —— still water is constantly moving. And our lives are sustained in its flow.
With a brain that is able to learn and understand so much, and with legs that are able to carry us here and there ——— are we living as poetically and productively as —— water?
Elijah exposed the pagan impotence of Baal when he doused the altar with soaking water and called fire down from Heaven —— Baal’s prophets could do nothing but wail over their defeat. Then hours later Elijah would lay down by a brook despairing of life, but find God’s provision of water to flow beside him even in a drought. God restored His servant by that brook.
The first mention of water, as already shared, is in the first chapter of God’s Holy Bible. Can you guess where the last mention of water is found? The last chapter of the Bible. So poetic.
Revelation 22:17, “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come!’ Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.”
And let us not forget that it is water our Father in Heaven calls us to be baptized in to signify the washing away of the old self; being raised up out of those waters clean in Him.
Our good Father has placed us all on a round ball suspended in the universe which is covered with 71% water. Now, let’s be honest and recognize that about 97% of that water is salty and unable to sustain human, land animal or plant life. That leaves 3% of the earth’s water fresh, life giving, and life sustaining. Oh friend —— that fresh water is constantly moving between earth and Heaven. From lakes and ponds to evaporated moisture reaching towards the Heavenlies, that then gathering in clouds only to fall again —— to try again —— to refresh and revive and sustain life again.
In a broken and fallen world —— can we see the poetic twist —— where only 3% of all life-giving water is constantly moving, bringing, giving, helping ——— with no time or care to complain over the 97% that is not.
Let’s live like we’re HIS WATER in a dry, parched world. Even if we’re only 3% in size —— let’s bring His life to this broken world.
Even without a mouth… His water poetically speaks.
