Water: Lent XVI

. . . everything will live where the river goes.

 - From Ezekiel 47

Imagine Judgment Day. Sentences are pronounced, and then a sudden burst of fire totally obliterates anything that was corrupt, evil, and/or dead. The Earth, and in fact, the universe itself, is left desolate. Even the setting of the novel and film, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, will seem like the first really lush day of Spring, in comparison.

Complete darkness, totally bleak and barren. You're standing there with a crowd of people, as these events unfold. You are among those still standing. You have made it this far. You escaped the final punishment for selfishness, carnality, evil, sinfulness.

You look about you, and a sense of anticipation builds. The people left standing mostly know what is about to happen . . . but it has always been only in their imagination. The scene that just transpired: Of everybody, one moment, going about their daily routines, in the Year 2236, or maybe 2159, or even, 2019. But in an instant, there was an explosion like none other, and a brilliant flash of light that even permeated into darkened, windowless cellars, jerked every living creature from its slumber.

All at once, (or was it a hundred years?) there was a battle, and the appearance of a great figure in brilliant light - The King! Human-built armaments gathered together to resist the Person in blinding light. The humans had so much to fight for! The right to be yourself! To do whatever you wanted to do! To gain power so that the entire community could do your bidding! Humanity had perfected the art of gaining power over others, and was not about to yield it now! But the King and His angelic forces swept the human armies away, with a single word. In a flash, it all seemed to over.

The vast landscape was left with the entirety of all of humanity, from all ages, gathered in a crowd and looking up. They were clad in simple robes. And then came the judgment, and the burst of fire.

Just like that, it was over . . . this moment of time that couldn't have transpired in less than a hundred years. Yet . . . here we were.

From out of the sky came a city the size of a world. It was made of gold and other shiny metals.

And then, once grounded . . . water flowed from its east gate - it flowed outward, towards the East. And everywhere it went, life burst forth. Life, and food, and color, and peace, and joy.

The floodwaters of Noah, once used to eradicate life on earth, were now used to restore it - - - but to restore it eternally. The water from the River of Life eventually works its way into the soil of all the earth, bringing forth life wherever it soaks.

And you're going to want to take a drink of it.

Water is a symbol in Lent. Be mindful of Water. And of Life.