There Is a River
Water: God’s Magnificent Molecule
by
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Adam had begun man’s long recurrently dismal pilgrimage battered in resounding Satanic defeat in the Garden of Eden, the premier well watered Wonder of the World. Jesus began the long trip back to paradise in two lesser but significant gardens.
On the night before His execution He knelt, desperately alone, in the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed that this ordeal, “this cup”, might be taken from Him. Dr. Luke, writer of the third Gospel, ever vigilant for medical footnote, writes that in His agony His sweat “became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground”.
Now less then twenty four hours later Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, Good Friday’s makeshift morticians, lay Him to final rest in a garden. Alone He agonized in futility. Alone He died in disgrace. Alone He lay forever. Forever?
It looks that way. And give Him credit for flawless prophesy. He had recurrently forecast his imminent death by capital punishment.
But here’s the rub. Friend and foe alike also heard with their own ears His audacious prediction of His bodily resurrection. He even forecast the time. The third day.
Sunday!
A Sunday to be obscured by time as all the others?
A Sunday to alter the ages?
Which?
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About the Book
There Is a River is a series of 271 short studies on the Bible and water. It’s origins are in the author’s first hand experience with thirst. Through seven decades of life, he had little reason to think on the subject. Few Westerners do. Notable exceptions are overheated, underhydrated summer hikers on the mountains of the Pacific Crest Trail. Larry Carlson joined those ranks in the summer of 2013.
Distances between PCT water holes are often fifteen to twenty miles. After hauling a few gallons of H20 aboard back and hip over some such distance, a light suddenly switched on. Ancient and current dwellers in arid lands get the concept of water as the precious but stingy elixir of life it is. Moderns who activate gushers with the twist of a faucet do not. We understand springs, wells, and cisterns no better than we comprehend yokes, yeast, sowing, and shepherding. Yet the inspired Word of God swims (pun intended) in archaic images demanding comprehension.
There Is a River navigates Genesis through Revelation as follows:
Water: Creation to Condemnation (in the beginning through the fall of man)
Water: Desolation to Consolation (Noah through Joseph)
Water: Serenity to Tempest (Job, poetry, Prophets)
Water: Slavery to Salvation (Moses through crucifixion of Jesus Christ)
Water: Resurrection through Revelation (the empty tomb through judgment and eternity)
About the Author
Larry Carlson is a retired high school history teacher, Western Reformed Seminary graduate, and pastor in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. His previous writing, Presbies on the Hill, traces Presbyterian History in the Gig Harbor, Washington area from 1888 through 1994. There is a River owes its origins to his musings on water while hiking one thousand miles with his wife Maudie on the Pacific Crest Trail.