I just finished floating through the book of Hosea and it was much richer and deeper than I anticipated going into it. I found many prophetic references to Jesus that I had no idea were buried in Hosea. That has been the amazing thing about my experience so far on this journey of reflecting on water passages in the bible. Everywhere I look I find interesting and intriguing eddies of understanding that I would have never found had I not embarked on this journey. Over the last few weeks it has occurred to me that the bible is a little like a water park, yes a water park, so I decided to take a break between Hosea and Joel to follow this rabbit trail.

Water parks are often located in places that get hot, although there was one along Interstate-5 near Seattle, WA where I grew up that tried to make a go of it. Locating a water park in Seattle is a little like selling water to fish. Sure you may get the odd customer, but your marketing plan may need to be pretty good. The Bible is often seen as something “out of place” or out of date in many people’s lives, it certainly was for me. I have often found it difficult to spend time reading the bible. That is part of the reason I started this blog and journey in the first place.

When I first started studying water and the bible it was hard and I often felt like a fish out of water. As I have continued to stay on the river, with plenty of fits and starts, God has been faithful in providing me with insights and wisdom that are far beyond my own knowledge. I do not say this to boast, but to give credit to God for making something, the Bible, that has been difficult for me to approach with passion into something dynamic and fun – like a water park.

People go to water parks to have thrills and excitement without the dangers associated with “wild water” in a river or at the ocean. I remember once when I was in the desert southwest attending a geology field camp we took a break from work and the heat to visit a water park. A friend who was with us proudly wore his new “swim trunks” that his fiance had sent him all day. At the end of the day he realized, with some embarrassment, what everyone else probably had realized much earlier, that his “swim trunks” were in actuality boxer shorts.

I feel this way sometimes as I navigate through the bible trying to make sense of perplexing passages and prophecies. I look back on some posts that I thought were very clever at the time, and I realize that what I thought were “swim trunks” were actually “boxer shorts”. My “wisdom” was way off base. I have learned to move on from these potentially embarrassing epiphanies, and I am confident that God will understand and honor my attempts at understanding, as imperfect as they may be.

Water parks are fun and exhilarating, two words that you do not hear in reference to the bible very often. Water parks push us to do things that scare us and help us to feel alive again. God has been doing the same thing with the bible for me as I have navigated turbulent water and trying times since I started this journey on June 22, 2014. God has brought many passages of the bible alive for me through experience and helping me remember times in my life where God showed up in amazing ways. I confess I am still looking forward to the more familiar water of the new testament, but I am content to “play” in this part of the “water park” for now as God teaches me about passages and places that I had no idea were there and may have missed entirely.

As I was writing this post a song came on Pandora that hit me in the heart and made me cry. It was the equivalent of a hug from God. The song was Come to Jesus by Chris Rice. Here are the lyrics:

Weak and wounded sinner
Lost and left to die
O, raise your head, for love is passing by
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus and live!

Now your burden’s lifted
And carried far away
And precious blood has washed away the stain, so
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus and live!

And like a newborn baby
Don’t be afraid to crawl
And remember when you walk
Sometimes we fall, so
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus and live!

Sometimes the way is lonely
And steep and filled with pain
So if your sky is dark and pours the rain, then
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus and live!

O, and when the love spills over
And music fills the night
And when you can’t contain your joy inside, then
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus and live!

And with your final heartbeat
Kiss the world goodbye
Then go in peace, and laugh on Glory’s side, and
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus and live!
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus and live!

Prayer: God thank You for making reading the bible and this journey with water and the bible a fun and exhilarating experience that is new every morning.