Water

A few years ago I did a bible study based on Finding Nemo.  I think I may have mentioned it before.  Maybe a few hundred times.  It’s kind of the reason I use the name Sharkbait.

One of the weeks we talked about GOD being like the water in Finding Nemo.  He is all around the fish, even when they can’t see him.  Water is life for the fish, and if they try to break “free” they will die. 

So I guess the idea of GOD as water is often with me, and I have ever done a few posts where I compare him to the ocean, or a bucket of water.

Well a while ago I was sitting staring at a river while doing my Bible study, and I got to thinking.  I got to thinking about the different “faces” of GOD.  How people will talk about the wrath of our Old Testament GOD, or the love of the New Testament GOD, as if they are different people.  And we find it hard to accept.

But we accept it in water.  Don’t we.

If you go out to the ocean, you see the pounding waves.  They crash and rage, and destroy pretty much anything that dares to get in their way.  You can take a huge rock and throw it in, and the power of the waves will cause it to be pounded to dust eventually.

But it often stops before it crushes it completely.  The rock will be broken, but not destroyed.  Instead, as it is battered under the force of the waves, it will become smooth.  The edges will wear down, and it will be made beautiful. 

Then it will be carried down a river, until it lands on the shore.  The slow, steady wash of the tide will shine that stone until it is more beautiful.  And it will lie in that still water, being made clean.

I thought of this as I picked up smooth stones on the river bank.  Not a single broken or jagged one there.  All smooth, and shiny.  As I sat there, enjoying the peace of the smooth water, I realised this was the same water which had come from the open sea. 

The water which thundered and roared, also lay still and peaceful.   The same water had broken these stones, and was now making them perfect.

Sometimes in my life I try to throw my own strength against GOD, as if I could overcome him.  He takes that, and breaks what is not of him.  But then that same GOD, that same water, will smooth me, and shine me, and allow me to rest in his peace.

GOD is both the ocean, and the river.  The raging water, and the still.  He is what we need HIM to be, and he will do with us what we will. 

We can’t find peace, until we have found our shape.

When we need a mighty GOD, he is there, guiding us in his way, and molding us. 

When we need to find peace, he is there as well.  Infinite and peaceful, able to smooth us and make us shine.