dry river running
(C) 2011 dr wills


there's a dry river running thru the land

an endless stream of burning sand

quiet as death
in snakey channels carved
dry river running midst
 the thirsty and the starved


now all that once found comfort there
transfixed in painful silence stare
while the dry river running
with its rock-strewn wave
headlong rushes down
down to the grave

there's a dry river running thru the land
 a barren channel in the soul of man
hard as stone
and though void it may appear
its a dry river running
full of sorrow, death and fear
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This morning in prayer it appeared to me that man is like the bed or the channel of a river.  Of course, a river bed is made to be the channel in which life-giving waters may continually flow.  That imagery is very suitable for considering the nature of man and his intended relationship with God.  Man was not made to be anything in and of himself, but to be a channel for the Spirit of God to fill and, through which channel (the soul of man), the Spirit of God may pour out of that soul the life-giving 'water' of God's Word and Spirit.  Man (the channel) in union and filled with God (the 'water'), becomes a river of Life.  That is God's purpose.

But what about the soul that is not filled with God's Spirit?  Is that soul therefore empty?  No, it is not.  And just here is the real meaning of the above poem.  How can a dry river 'run'?

That fact is, that the soul that is not filled with God's Spirit is nevertheless filled with things invisible to the natural eye.  Those who are not filled with God are filled with--as the poem says, "sorrow, death and fear".  They are thus a 'dry' river (void of the 'water' of God's Word and Spirit); but they are a river 'running', nevertheless.  Rather than being a channel of blessing and of life, however, they are a channel bearing death everywhere they go.

Think about a dry river bed.  Though it were empty and dry and it might therefore appear to be passive, that is, harmless; yet, in fact it is filled with hard stones, hot sands, and no water!  Whereas it was meant to be a life-giving source, instead, it literally takes life from everything around it.  You can almost visualize such a dry river bed flowing with the invisible breath of Death.

So is man without God.

But, thanks be to God! "there is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God..." (Psalm 46:4).

Are you such a river?