The River Bottom

The banks of rivers are constantly being changed by the flowing water which pushes against them.  Not only are the banks of the river changed, but the low land around the river which is prone to flooding is changed as the flowing waters rises during a season of flooding.  Anyone who watches a river knows that no river is ever seen exactly the same twice.  What is visible to the eye is always changing.  It may look the same, but the patient eye will soon see where what was is now something else.    

In the book of John there is a passage about a river.  In John 7:38 the Word enables us to hear Jesus saying, "As the Scripture has said, 'Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.' "  It creates a powerful image to consider.  Put it alongside of what we hear Jesus saying to the Samaritan woman and another powerful dimension of the image is added. "The water that I give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life."  (John 4:14)  To ponder the images is to see holy power changing and shaping the shoreline of our life, but also changing and shaping our soul in an invisble way even as the moving water changes the visible banks of the river and the invisible river bottom.   

Stop for a moment and understand that the source of this river of living water is Christ and Christ alone.  He is the source, the spring, the beginning.  And from Him, into us and through us, flows this holy stream which enables those who know us to see how we live differenly while at the same time shaping and changing the part of us that cannot be seen externally by anyone except the One whose spirit is flowing into and through us.  As the invisible river bottom is changed by the flowing river so is our soul changed by the flowing Holy Spirit.