BECOMING RIVERLIKE

Recently in the night I saw a river flowing… not a large river but a small river. It was like I was the river. I immediately wanted to think and be like a river in some sense. The river has a destination…it moves…rolls along…makes turns and goes straight. It can go over rocks and brush and debris… around mountains and between mountains. The more it flows the more it is purified unlike a lake or ocean that seem to sit in a situated place and only move slightly.

Then I membered the prophecy of Isaiah, “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.” (44:3)

Jesus speaks of this, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart (innermost being) will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (Note: “out of his heart” is literally out of his belly” in the original.)

Jesus also said, ““If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” (Again, literally, “let him keep coming to me, and let him keep drinking.”)

Maybe we are the river… or the river is us… but we are to be Riverlike.

To the woman at the well; ““Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Jesus