May 4th, 2021
As I approached the end of my morning walk, I deviated ever so slightly to take in the beauty down by the riverside… I’m drawn to this place, this bend in the river, where the water first takes a sharp right, then a quick left, and then disappears straight out of sight… It’s magical in any season, but was especially so this morning as the bright white dogwoods popped with color against the thick wooded hillside. I crouched down low, taking care not to fall in, while the dog ran like a banshee up and down the small embankment with delight. The sky was colorless… poised for rain.
The water trickled quietly by… just a shadow of the rushing stream from earlier in the year - its gentle flow followed a peaceful rise and fall. I placed my hand into the current, just to feel its power, while sticks and leaves floated on by… ALIVE
As I watched the current bend and twist, following the path of least resistance, that age old saying, “like water under the bridge…” came to mind. My experience with that idiom seems to be used more often to describe something negative or undesirable that has come and gone and cannot be changed. Something no longer worth worrying about…
A solitary leaf slowly made its way toward me… up and over the tallest rock, down and around another, sharp right, quick left, and then disappeared straight out of sight.
I think a million thoughts collided in my mind at that moment - thoughts of people and relationships that have simply come and gone, “like water under the bridge…”
Or successes and failures, places we’ve lived, people we’ve met -
“like water under the bridge…”
Company failures, foreclosures, job loss, death -
Hopes, dreams, joys and sorrow,
“like water under the bridge…”
I think it could be easy, at times, to imagine ourselves on a trajectory similar to that solitary leaf… blown and tossed by every wave and current on this journey of life. And I guess it actually is like that...
Except for GRACE -
At the beginning of the trailhead, on top of a mountainside - a Cross rose high… From the side of our Saviour flowed - a current so costly.
Forgiveness
Grace -
For all.
The God of the Universe left the splendor of Heaven because He so loved the world -
He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him might be ETERNALLY ALIVE -
There has always been a plan of redemption in place… right there with free will - God intricately weaving and sowing grace into THE PLAN.
That Cross rose high, planted in Truth, so we would never have to slither and slide over slippery rocks - blown and tossed by every wave and current. We would never need to be mastered by every cultural current, but rather live securely safe in His Plan.
That leaf may come and pass me by... and that relationship might do so as well - that job, that house, that promotion, that hope… just like, “water under the bridge…”
But there’s something supremely solid under my feet,
Unmoveable -
Unchangeable…
It’s a living breathing current of GRACE coursing through my veins that makes me ALIVE - an unmistakable knowledge of the goodness of God DESPITE my circumstances…
An energy that defines what’s coming down river - not by what is seen - but by what is True.
And…
For all that water that’s long gone under the bridge…? Yeah - there’s special redemption for that stuff too…“What you meant for evil - God intended for good…” (Gen 50:20.) It’s so neatly written out for us in Genesis.
I’ve planted myself in a study for the next month or two entitled, “The Gospel of Joseph…”A man saved from death to keep many ALIVE… but only because He disciplined Himself to trust the grace of God while the currents in his life raced downstream.
These are my morning thoughts, all while a little white dog bounded with joy and returned to my side covered and caked in mud… happily wagging her tail with sheer joy just to be ALIVE!
