Water Under the Bridge

Each morning when we walk, my friend and I stop on the bridge over the river for a few moments meditation. I look forward to those times that revive and refresh me! And this morning those minutes were especially rewarding. There is a rock in the river that the water coming down stream crashes into and that encounter changes the course of the water. As I stood there this morning I noticed what happens to the water after it hits the rock. Instead of flowing uninterrupted on downstream like the water to the left of the rock, that water diverts to one of three places. Some of the water goes right as soon as it hits the rock and washes onto the shore. Some of the water goes right and is then pushed into a quiet little nook almost like a quiet pond in the middle of churning waters. The third group goes to the left of the rock and for about six feet seems to be rejoining the rest of the river but then makes a right turn. It is this current that forms the bottom border of the “pond” area and it continues to the shore where it then turns left again and goes on down the river.

As I watched the three areas many thoughts went swimming through my head. The rock is like the obstacles in our lives that often divert us into different paths but they don’t stop us. We are floating down the river of life, but then some obstacle in our path changes the course of our life and we end up someplace very different than where we thought we were going. But that isn’t necessarily bad. God needs some of us to water the vegetation on the shore. Some of the obstacles in our lives actually take us to a place of peace and calm, like the “pond” area where we rest awhile before traveling on. And some of us have something to learn from an abrupt right turn before we are ready to join the current again and move on.

I think I’m in one of those abrupt right turn areas now, but this morning the river gave me hope. When I’ve learned what I’m supposed to learn, I’ll rejoin the current and move on downstream.