The River of Life
Image by Jorg Vieli, Sonyuser, Pixabay
Watching wildlife along the river this month has brought to mind the river of life metaphor in the Scriptures.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. Revelation 22: 1-3
These verses open the final chapter of the Bible, the culmination of St John’s vision of events at the end of time. They teem with wonderful truths, as a river teems with wildlife. The water symbolises true life as God intended – in harmony with Him and each other. It’s pure, unpolluted by all that spoils life here and now on our beautiful planet. The river nourishes the tree of life, whose leaves effect the healing of the nations. Global peace finally becomes reality!
The source of the river is God, specifically his throne. John paints a picture of the ultimate fulfilment of the prayer, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It’s not a world where humanity has finally learned how to resolve its problems and live in peace. It’s one where mankind has at last submitted to the reign of God. Submission is an unpopular concept nowadays, and I freely admit it rankles my independent spirit. But the throne to which we’re called to submit is characterised by love, goodness, wisdom and justice in the kingdom of Jesus, the Lamb, whose sacrifice for sin pays the price of our entry.
During a conversation at a well, Jesus said, Everyone who drinks this [physical] water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. John 4:13
In one of my favourite hymns, Horatius Bonar beautifully expresses my experience of this,
I came to Jesus, and I drank of that life-giving stream;
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in him.
