northern Alberta is named for a point on the river where the indigenous Cree and Beaver people smoked the peace pipe and made a treaty to settle a decades-long feud.
They agreed that the Cree would remain south of the river and the Beaver people would stay on the north.
Apparently, good rivers can make good neighbors.
Isaiah, Israel’s 8th century poet-seer, saw his community as a troubled river – shallow, filled with debris, political intrigue, judicial corruption, morally polluted. He predicted environmental disaster as well as political and economic doom ahead.
He believed that Israel’s future depended on her getting her spiritual direction right. He wrote for God,
"I am God, your God,
who teaches you how to live right and well.
I show you what to do, where to go.
If you had listened all along to what I told you,
your life would have flowed full like a river,
blessings rolling in like waves from the sea.
Isaiah 48:17-18 The Message
Isaiah uses the words shalom (peace) and sedeq (ethical character) to draw attention to the spiritual dimension of life. Shalom suggests a river of peace, wholeness, safety and well-being. Sedeq has connotations of consistent integrity, uprightness and fairness. He was convinced that people can only flourish if society is firmly established in justice and truth and the ways of God.
Here are some questions to personalize Isaiah’s imagery:
► If your life were a river, how would you describe the flow right now ... full, shallow, tranquil, turbulent, murky, meandering?
► If it were a beach, how are the waves? gentle, stormy, relentless, refreshing, exhilarating?
► Whose voices are you listening to ? Where does your sense of direction come from ?
► How would you describe our society in terms of a river? What are the forces at work that make it that way in your view?
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