The earliest images of the River come from the Biblical book of Genesis 2. They describe a “garden,” like a very large wilderness park area, called “Eden.”

“A river watering the garden flowed outward from Eden …” The River was always intended to be a grace, a blessing to support life everywhere. Its nourishment was never intended only for the Garden. Eden, its headwaters, is where all that beauty and life was most obvious!

Later, the beautiful words: “There is a River whose streams bring delight to the city of God, the holy place where God lives.” (Psalm 46) This time the River flows not only through a Garden planted by God, but through a city built by humans, where people live. A place, like the Garden, where God lives with us.

Long centuries still later, people came to see their life as a desert. Their beautiful world had become ruined, ransacked beyond recovery. They lived in exile, far from their home, and they felt the loss keenly! The ancient image of the River came to them in their “desert” life with promises of joy, abundance, healing. (Isaiah 35, 41, 44)

In those days one of their mystics even dreamed of the ancient River coming back again, flowing into the desert and creating a new Garden – beauty, superabundant life, all renewed (Ezekiel 47)

The River is renewal, recovery, healing – a promise for the future to give meaning to the sufferings of the past – and hope for living well today.

The ancient people who held to this hope became strong, resilient. In their daily struggle to survive they found energy and creativity to connect with God, to treat each other well. They found their place in the strange new world around them, and they contributed a mighty difference to the common good!

The people who held this hope became like the River: blessed in themselves, and a blessing to others!

But it gets better: the promise of the River became more than an image for a beautiful land in the future. The River became an image for spiritual abundance, poured out in people’s hearts, with the same joyful, beautiful, creative effects. (Isaiah 44, Joel 2) God’s Spirit would be “poured out” on humans, wherever they are, whomever they are – for all who would receive.

Jesus spoke of “streams of water,” “living water,” the Spirit of God flowing once again into the desert of the world – for all who would receive it!

There’s more! But let’s scroll to the End! The River shows up again, in the time and place where God shows up to “make all things new.” The River flows through the New City, where God “lives,” where people from all nations live with Him and each other, in abundant peace. The River makes the New City look like the ancient Garden! And all is brought back home, where we all belong. (Revelation 21, 22)

Feeling thirsty, like your life’s a desert? God’s unseen love invites you to meet Him at the River. The River is where you belong – where we all belong.