The little river behind my house

Good morning,
I pray the day is finding you well.

I was standing in the river with Abe again this weekend, go figure.

I like rivers.

The water moves in rivers.

Ponds are nice.

Lakes are cool.

Rivers are awesome.

Ponds are nice to laze around in, and by.

Lakes are fun if you have a boat.

Rivers are special.

Rivers move.

The little river behind my house is not big, nor is it deep. The water is crystal clear. It has a rocky bottom that has different depth holes in it. Some hole you can sit in up to your waist. Other holes you can sit in up to your chest; there are some holes that you can sit in that are over your head.

As I was standing in the river with Abe, a leaf floated by. I watched as the leaf went one way, then another as it floated down the river. Sometimes it would spin gently in the current, other times it would come to a rapid and careen through the torrent of water. Once it was through the rapid it would come to a pool of slow moving water and spin gently in the pool once again.

I started to see a metaphor of life in this leaf floating down the river behind my house. As I watched this leaf going on its way, I put myself in the leaf. How life has moments of calmness, when everything seems to be in order. Then the current speeds up, at first we do not even notice, then we see that things are going faster, and faster. Sometimes it is all of a sudden and we find ourselves in the rapids of life. When we are in the rapids of life it is hard to see when the rapids end. Then we come out of the rapids to a gentle pool where we can spin slowly, allowing us to take life in. The process tends to repeat itself as we go through life. No two rapids are the same, but they are rapids non-the-less.

I was in the midst of contemplating this, as I stood in the river behind my house.

My thoughts turned to formation and transformation.

Formation and transformation in Christ is more like a river and less like a pond or lake.

Formation and transformation in Christ is not a stagnant process. It is a process that is constantly moving.

We are not sitting in one place.

We are either moving towards Christ or away from Him.

We are either forming and being transformed into Christlikeness or we are forming and being transformed away from Him.
We are not sitting still.

We are on the river of life.

A thought I can ask myself is, “Which way am I forming?”

Father, as I travel down this river of life help me. It is easy to contemplate you in the gently motion of the slow water. What I ask is that you help me see you in the rapids too. As I endeavor to keep my focus on You Lord. Give me nudges when my attention drifts. I have been saved by your Grace. Help me to grow in You. Amen.

Blessings,