The Dynamic Aqua Pura (That's Water, Y'all)

Well. Dennis continues his sojourn into vying for a Mountain Man designation. Unfortunately, no reality show has come knocking at our door yet. But that does nothing to detract from his being a true hero in my book!

Why do I call him that, you ask? For many reasons, but the latest is how he has tackled our creek problem--with indefatigable determination!

Behind our Tennessee property there runs a creek. It is nameless (as far as maps go, so I have a mind to call it Sunshine Creek), is one and six tenths of a mile long, and ends where it empties into another creek (one that has an actual name--Town Creek). Town Creek eventually flows into the Hatchie River. In his pre-Texas days, Dennis enjoyed fishing on the Hatchie River, so it seems somewhat providential that the creek behind our property is somewhat related to it!

Anyway, back to our creek … I have heard of the power of rushing water in a river--who hasn't?--but I had never witnessed it with my own eyes. Please note the cut up log in the first picture. One of our sweet (!!!!) neighbors up the creek

decided to cut down a few trees. Maybe they had been

damaged in the two ice storms we had this winter. Whatever his reason, our thoughtful (NOT!!!!!) neighbor decided to dump this log in our Sunshine Creek. So when the rain came … yup, you got it. The log effectively damned the creek, causing water to overflow and run into our garden, despite our nice wood fence.

I'll build a dike where the rain overflowed, thought Dennis. A few hundred dollars later, not to mention countless man hours of labor, a dike was built. Next rain--the water ran in from the north. Dennis to the dike again--fortifying, raising, extending. Next rain--garden flooded again. While the dike definitely minimized flooding on our property, some overflow managed to work its way around the dike! Agghhhh!!!!!

Time to call city hall. Time to get discouraged when

city hall wipes their hands of the problem (à la Pontius Pilate) and says it's our problem.

Back to the creek goes Dennis, with his son's trusty chain saw, and resignedly saws the offending log into pieces and hauls the pieces (heavy things!) to the side of Sunshine Creek. That is picture one.

Lots of hard work, but both Dennis and I were grateful that the creek was no longer clogged due to our thoughtful (NOT!!!!!) neighbor (and yes, we have had to pray to forgive him).

Then came another six inches of rain. Our creek became a rushing mini-river again. And our garden was flooded--again? How could that be? Dennis had cleared out the creek!

Donning rubber boots and rain gear, Dennis went to inspect this incredible happening (like Moses inspecting the burning bush, our interest was piqued, but in this case, alas, God didn't speak to us from the rushing water in the creek!). I couldn't believe the report Dennis brought back (well, I did believe him, but I had to go look myself, it was so incredible). See pictures two and three? The water in the creek (and this is just a teeny-tiny creek, people!) was so powerful that it had moved more of our snarky neighbor's logs down to behind our house! These logs were longer and bigger than the one he had sawed up. No wonder the creek had overflowed again!

So today Dennis is back at his purgatory--chain sawing logs in the creek-- and I am left to ponder with total amazement the power of water. Those logs are HEAVY. I helped move brush and boughs that were one twentieth the thickness of the logs the rushing water moved, if that much, and after four days my muscles are still letting me know that they did NOT enjoy that foray into bicep/tricep building!

Yet, despite their immense weight, those logs were like mere toothpicks before the force of the water!

Up to now, I had only read about or seen on TV the destruction caused by rushing water. I had head knowledge that water was powerful, but now that I have seen what it does with my own eyes, I have a very real heart knowledge that has filled me with great awe. And I can't help but think, No wonder God compares His Word to water. If water can move such heavy logs in the natural, just imagine what God's all-powerful Word can do!

God's Word is powerful! It was with HIs Word that God created the heavens and the earth . It is this very Word that leads us to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 3:15). It is this Word that helps transform our minds and helps us become regenerated (1 Peter 1:23). It is this Word that makes the believer complete (2 Timothy 3:16-17). God couldn't have used a better analogy than that of water, with its strength and power.

So maybe God didn't speak to us audibly through the rushing water of the creek, but as we ponder what that water did, our hearts swell with praise at the power and majesty of our God. He is all- powerful. He can move mountains. He can do anything. And He and His Word are ONE--"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).

When Grandma Maria was in her nineties, she was praying one day and she heard the Spirit whispering to her, "With God, nothing is impossible. With God, nothing is impossible." With awed amazement, she told me she heard it like a chant, with the rhythmic cadence of a fan, over and over, "With God, nothing is impossible."

Grandma had learned to pray "claiming" verses. That is, if she had a request before God she would lay claim to a verse that promised what she asked for and base her request on that, on God's sure-fire eternal Word. And I am a first-hand witness to her incredible "crazy" faith that saw many astonishing answers to prayer. What's more, those things I knew she was praying for that didn't come to pass before her home-going? I have seen them come to pass! Those prayers were answered posthumously! God is faithful! His Word is infallible! What He has said WILL come to pass--maybe not when we want, but He WILL do it!

So when you pray, be like Grandma. Set your request on a promise from God's dynamic Word. The latent power there is limitless, going far beyond what our finite minds can even begin to fathom. We can trust His Word. We can rest assured that in His perfect timing, what we have prayed for, what He has spoken to us, WILL come to pass. He is no respecter of persons. What He did for Grandma, He will do for you!

Be encouraged this day in Him and His powerful, enduring Word! Remember Sunshine Creek and its log-moving power! It might be a tiny creek , but the water that runs in it … Wow! Even so, we might be "tiny" in the eyes of the world or in our own eyes, but the Word in us??? Powerful!

"I the Lord have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it …" (Ezequiel 24:14).