Rooted by the River-bank

I’ve always been impressed by the rugged roots of cedars growing along shale ravines.  Those roots worry their way down through fissures in the rock searching out the waters below. 

I love walking along woodland streams where gurgling waters keep plants alive and healthy despite the constant shade of the over-hanging tree cover.

Flowing streams provide continuous moisture and nutrients for the plants and animals that live along their banks. 

This picture of a tree flourishing at the river’s edge provides the classic metaphor for what the Bible calls an enviable life – a blessed life, a life of vibrant spirituality.  As the seasons come and go, this tree – this person “planted by streams of water”, flourishes.They survive calamity, storm and drought.

The river in this metaphor is what the Hebrews called Torah, the biblical story told by God and re-told by God’s people.  Torah inter-weaves the stories of Creation and redemption – or re-creation. 

Torah is a running stream of truth about God that never fails to ground us in reality; it tells us how to live wisely and well.  Psalm 1 opens Israel’s great Book of Praise with this metaphor, reminding us that we can’t do any better than to root our lives in this never-failing river of God.

Life can erupt into chaos; cynical and misleading voices clamor for our loyalty. But people who immerse themselves in the story and deeds of God live anchored and secure.  They nourish their souls and their families with God’s wisdom and absorb God’s ways into their attitudes and actions.   

People who plant themselves by this river of God bear fruit in their character and speech.  An impulse towards compassion and justice will motivate their interactions; they will exhibit the influence of God’s heart in courage and contentment, in trustworthiness and generosity, in creativity and joy, in self-restraint and mercy. 

You can see a variation on this dynamic in what has been called the world's most colorful river, 'the river that escaped from paradise, the Cano Cristales in Colombia. During the wet season, the water flows fast and deep and in the dry season there is not enough water to support the dazzling array of life in the river. 

But during a brief span between the wet and dry seasons, when the water level is just right, many varieties of algae and moss bloom in a dazzling display of colours. Blotches of blue, green, black and red - and a thousand shades in between - festoon the river. 

Despite the extremes of their environment, these organisms survive and flourish year after year.

This is what I would call riparian righteousness – human goodness sustained along the river-bank of God.  Jeremiah preached this metaphor (Jeremiah 17:5-8) amid the political upheaval and moral decadence of his world. And Jesus modeled it profoundly in the most creatively human life the world has ever witnessed.  That’s where I find I can nourish my own soul, too.

What do you think?

Photo Credits:
Cedar ... Cano Cristales