Salty Pools

In my post last week I wrote about the positive influence of salt. It reminded me of a post last month about the proverb that you can’t draw fresh water from a salt-water well. That was about the inconsistency of praising God in one breath and cursing people with the next. Today I want to link the two with another story about remediating wells.

When wells become brackish or saline, they become useless. This is what happened after the tsunami in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The day after Christmas 2004 when a tsunami struck the coast of Sumatra Island, large boats were hurled inland and thousands of people were washed out to sea – and some 30,000 shallow wells suddenly became saline.

Three Things that Amaze – No, Make that Four!

Near the end of a book written to teach us wisdom, comes a portrait of four things that can leave you in awe. Proverbs 30:18-19 says,

There are three things that amaze me—

no, four things that I don’t understand:

how an eagle glides through the sky,

how a snake slithers on a rock,

how a ship navigates the ocean,

how a man loves a woman.

Paul’s Shipwreck

The Book of Acts finishes with a crackling good story of shipwreck.

Since the time of Homer 1000 years before Jesus, Greek sea-faring stories invariably included the great adventures of the perils of the sea travel. Such stories not only entertained well, but served as metaphors of the challenge and uncertainties of human life, especially the precarious risk facing human beings pitted against nature and whatever divine powers, friendly or sinister, were thought to over-lap with the natural world.

The Book of Acts takes it place alongside these stories.

Deep Calls to Deep

My previous post, As the Deer, reflected on the power of thirst as the writer of Psalm 42 said As the deer pants for steams of water, my soul thirsts for you O God.

Just a few lines later the writer's language shifts and he imagines himself in a middle of a raging river - “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me” Psalm 42:7. From 'parched soul' to 'deluge' in less than a minute.

Turbulent water can knock you off your feet, all right. Every year all around the world we hear tragic stories of people being swept away by the current of rivers. But what prompts the psalmist to shift so radically from thirsting to drowning?

Birthing the Sea

In February 2009, 48 high school and university students aboard the 57 foot Nova Scotia ship the SV Concordia, were sailing in rough seas 500 kms off the coast of Brazil when a bizarre wind – a microburst - suddenly capsized their boat. Within 20 minutes it sank.

The students and 16 staff members all escaped safely to life-boats and were rescued the next day by commercial ships, but they will never forget the unpredictable, untamable power of the sea.

Thundering Hallelujahs

Iguazu Falls, Argentina

Three times in the closing book of the Bible, we hear the cascading roar of rushing water.

The first ‘waterfall’ in the opening scene was the powerful voice of the Living Christ, giving the story-teller John a message of comfort and hope to his suffering church on earth.

The sound and sight of water cascading down rocks or thundering over the lip of a precipice does something to you. It soothes and energizes you at the same time. The water seems almost alive as it rushes forward and down – always down – almost like it was on a mission. Jesus, of course is the ultimate waterfall, plunging headlong into the mission of salvation for the whole of God’s creation.

Water-Walker

The gale broke over them in the middle of the lake without warning and roared all night. For hours they strained at the oars, fighting the winds and the waves. They are seasoned veterans on this lake, but it was getting the best of them. The raging lake was showing its legendary renown as the face of Chaos.

And then, suddenly, they saw the unthinkable - the form of a man walking towards them across the water. ‘Ghost’ was all they could imagine.

But this ‘ghost’ was actually their very down-to-earth friend Jesus coming to them where they least expected him – but when they most needed his help. He called to them above the wind, “It is I. Don’t be afraid!”

It was a night they never forgot. It was a voice that rang in their memory forever.

Erosion

This is Canada’s Water Week, culminating on World Water Day, March 22.

But today - one of the powerful effects of water on landscape and the human soul - erosion.

Erosion is part of the natural order. It can be devastating like a tsunami, but it can also produce magnificent scenery like the beautiful Garden of the Gods in Colorado, the Grand Canyon and the famous White Cliffs of Dover.

Erosion and the chemical process of dissolution that carves out cave systems all over the world, are signs of the universal law of attrition. Nature wears things down. Nature and time gnaw away at us – ‘erosion’ has the same Latin root as ‘rodent’. Whether gradually or ferociously, everything moves from order to disorder.

Many Waters Cannot Quench Love

Four years ago this week . . . Tiffany and I exchanged vows of marriage, vows of life-long devotion to each other.

Our ceremony included these words about water and love from Song of Solomon 8:7:

Many waters cannot quench love;

Neither can floods drown it.

Lots of water has streamed under our bridge since then, but it has not quenched the joy or love in our hearts.

River of Joy

Israel’s Psalm 46 is a study in contrasts. It begins with mountains collapsing into violent seas and then quickly changes to a cityscape graced by a peaceful river.

Let the oceans roar and foam.

Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!

Interlude 

A river brings joy to the city of our God,

the sacred home of the Most High.

God dwells in that city; it cannot be destroyed.

Many cities are defined by a river – think of the Thames in London, the Seine flowing through Paris, New York’s Hudson or Montreal on the St. Lawrence.

Impressive cities, impressive water-ways, natural beauty and economic engines. But Jerusalem has no river.

The only naturally occurring water Jerusalem enjoys, besides rain, is the Gihon spring on the east and the tiny conduit that carries its water into the city to the pool of Siloam. It’s barely a stream, how could such a river be a source of joy?

Fearless at the Cliff Edge

On a stormy winter night in 1639, the residents of Dunluce Castle on the coast of Northern Ireland were entertaining neighbors.

Dunluce is Gaelic for “strong fort” - and doubly strong it was even as the raging sea clawed at the basalt cliff on which the 12th century castle was built.

The surf pounded the rock that night until without warning the cliff-face crumbled and the kitchen wing of the castle collapsed into the sea plunging servants to their death.

Storm Master

In March 1992, ten foot waves crashed into downtown Tiberius on the shore of Lake Galilee, causing significant damage.

As lakes go, Galilee isn’t very large – 13 miles long and 8 miles wide, but violent storms can erupt very quickly as cool air rushes down from the adjacent mountains – the Arbel on the west, seen in the photo here, and the Golan Heights 1200 meters above the lake on the east .

The disciples were seasoned fisherman familiar with the lake’s turbulent ways. They knew how to handle her storms. On one occasion, Jesus was asleep in the boat when the winds hit.

Storm Glory

Psalm 29 traces the fury of a thunderstorm blowing in from the sea.

It whips through the northern forests, tears across the land and into the Negev in the south.

It splits oak trees asunder and shatters the mighty cedars of Lebanon. It strips the forests bare.


The singer revels in the majestic roar of waves and thunder, howling wind, crack of lightning and reverberation of trees crashing to the ground. Nature is majestic, wild and breath-taking!

Water, wind and weather dwarf our pride. Sailors, mountain-climbers and airline pilots learn to respect nature’s laws. But this storm-song tells us more.