DRY STREAM

DRY STREAM

There is a stream that runs through my neighborhood. I have tried unsuccessfully to find its origin, but I am certain that its destination is the river that flows continuously close to my neighborhood. Often, the stream is dry. It seems to always be in a waiting pattern – waiting for good soaking rain to replenish it so that it can do what it is designed to do – flow and contribute to the river.

When I walk on cloudy days, I think to myself, “this stream thinks today is the day it will be refueled.” Sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn’t – the clouds promise but don’t produce. The next day when I cross the stream it is still dry, waiting but not giving up. The stream knows that eventually the rain will come, it will flow again.

Rain hasn’t been plentiful for the last few months. Cloudy days have promised and not produced. Sometimes I find myself wishing for rain for the sake of the stream. To lay dry and to look at the clouds in the sky, wishing and hoping and then have the clouds do nothing must be disappointing for the stream.

The stream is teaching me. It reminds me of people, some I call friends, who seem to live under a cloud. The cloud doesn’t provide what is needed nor does it give way to sunshine. Their challenges leave them lying on their backs looking up to the sky for a solution. What else can they do but wait? This is how it looks to me anyway.

I have observed that the flora and fauna around the stream continue to flourish. Most things do not flourish without water so the dry stream must be supplying the plants and weeds with moisture that I cannot see. Maybe the water that I presumed evaporated actually soaked into the soil and the needs of the plants are being met. They are deeply rooted on the banks of the stream, which is one source of their survival. There is seemingly nothing being given to the river, but the stream is still serving others, confident that it will be replenished. Could this be the case with the friend under the “cloud.”

When I least expect it, I will awaken and discover that overnight it has started to rain, the type of rain event that soaks the earth. The replenishing has begun, and the stream can do what it is designed to do – flow.

The stream is a reminder that my focus is most often drawn to what I can see – negative or positive. It is also a reminder that I should never discount what is happening beneath the surface.

Leviticus 26:4

PONDER THIS THOUGHT… “We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.” Talmudic saying.