An Old Holy Book

A short piece from here there is a strip of asphalt which connects the small town near the farm to another even smaller town just across the river.  A one lane dirt road connects us to this rural asphalt expressway.  As the dirt road runs its course, it crosses four cement culverts which take the water in the branch from the north side of the road to the south side.  The recent rains have turned the most of the time dry branch into a noisy fast moving stream of water. 

 

As I passed through the tree filled wetland this afternoon and heard the water racing under the road through the culverts, I thought for a moment about its destination.  Eventually the water passing under the road will join the nearby river which flows downstream some sixty or so miles to the ocean.  Once there the branch water will disappear in waters as wide as the horizon.  And, what is possible is that some of the water from here going there may one day evaporate upward, become a rain cloud, and once again water the earth here.  And, if it does not come back here in the air, somewhere else.

 

This creation is such a amazing thing to behold.  Saints of other centuries called it a holy book in which God reveals Himself to those who take the time to pay attention.  Crossing the culverts today it seemed that there was a Word in the air declaring nothing is wasted which caused more thought about how we live in a society established firmly upon growing piles of waste.  The more we throw away, the more we show disrespect for the order of the creation established by our common Creator.  And, while we may not be able to do much to change our culture's need for growing landfills, we can mourn an addiction to a lifestyle that causes us to require the convenience of packaging and an extra fork to rake the unwanted food off our dinner plates into the open mouth of the trash can.