I almost forgot to post the thoughts I've been having along with the memory work I've been doing in Revelation. It's been so RICH! Today's will be from just the tail end of a verse, referring to the words; "fountain of waters".
"worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountain of waters" (Rev. 14:7)
Not only did Jesus promise, the angel points out here -- the Creator didn't merely form waters -- I have seen stagnant water when man decides he no longer wants a flow and walls out a stream, making it a stopped-up, festering pond. Yes, it still has water.
I am thinking concretely of Step Creek where I first saw the orphaned turtles trained. From the time of seeing the "jiggling leaves" in the sand and realizing their spinning pinheads were actually little turtle heads, tails, appendages; to the little splashes when they were learning to dive; to the shadowy ribbons in the water as they tried to swim submerged, undetected.
There were Step Creek memories of mallards -- 6 chicks too -- and of a common coot that moved for 2 traumatized carp. I can't forget the surprise friendship I had with Tai and how she leaped from her branch to save little ones down in the creek below. There was the 2-day meeting with that beautiful spider Rainbow -- I'll always remember the fun encounters with those silly egrets pretending to be white serpents with prowess.
The creeks? There were little fish playing in the water answering their mother's call; red crayfish locomoting backwards; tadpoles turning into frogs, some strange sights when toxicity set in or when there were blind critters protecting others, and one seemed just plain weak...retarded? (The carp that swam right into danger when others would quickly dart away.)
It was near those waters the ravens gathered. One flew up where the heron were, came down to the cherry blossoms, then Coffee the Crow came down to Step Creek, close enough for me to touch, so we could talk every day.
Those living, moving waters had been my path for taking walks with my carp friends -- I'd walk and talk along it, and they'd swim inside, listening.
When the river froze over in Iwatsuki -- it doesn't get that cold here in Okinawa -- it got real lonely. My swimming friends were there, way under the ice, but I couldn't see or communicate with them until spring, when the ice thawed.
It was up and down this creek I searched for them for months after that huge typhoon when it seemed they all disappeared.
Fountains. Abundance of Life. Man can get water together. But he can't make it burst with life, like God can. "Drinking at the Springs of Living Water," the 3 J's used to sing when we were in our teens. That's Jesus. He doesn't somehow give us life to keep us going. He told the woman at the well the water He gave her would spring up into everlasting life, that she wouldn't have to keep coming back to draw from the human well!
Human waters. She'd had four tries, and
they hadn't satisfied. Others in the world are all looking around. How did the poet put it? "Water, water, all around, and not a drop to drink!" It's the Creator that can take even the salty ocean water that
threatens to drown and make it the
entryway to everlasting life.
MARAH - (Ex. 15:23-24) The Tree cast in can make any bitter waters sweet. Oh Jesus, let me cast my eyes on Calvary always and rid my ugly heart so prone to want to cling to thoughts of bitterness and offended pride!
MERIBAH - (Num. 20:7-13) They had no water, it seemed, but a Faithful God Provided for even a doubting, complaining, striving disobedient child...in a way only God could give!
Yes, all living waters seem to bubble and spurt, gush out:
"Hallelujah, what a Savior!"
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