I love evening walks along the river in Coleraine, the stillness of the night and the river and getting to watch my dog run around freely finding adventure in every blade of grass, it refreshes my soul.
Usually while walking I pray, I pray for myself, for those I meet, for the walkway I’m on and for the city, about a week ago while standing on the pontoon on the river praying for the city with a friend i looked down at the river and was captivated at just how still it was, it was like a mirror image inviting me onto it, I felt like I could take a step out onto the water and simply walk over to the other side.
As I began looking across the river towards the other side I couldn’t help but notice the ripples of the water and suddenly I realised that underneath that stillness lay a strong and powerful current, the further I looked I started to see the reflections of the buildings on the other side, I noticed that while I could recognise what the building was, the ripples of the water distorted what the building should like in its original design.
I feel that the river looked like our battle with sin, the first step looks so inviting, the stillness of the water, the belief that we can keep ourselves afloat, that it will only be a small sin and we will be able to manage and maintain control when the truth is that behind that first step is a powerful current that can easily take us somewhere we don’t want to be, that it can easily wash us away.
The image of the buildings being distorted by the power of the water is exactly what sin does, it takes the things that we look at, God’s beautiful original designs, it takes our dreams, our futures, our hopes and distorts them.
Sin tells us to look at it, stare at it, get into it and then keep focused on it looking at everything that God has prepared for us through the distorting waters of its lens
That night i stood and thought about what if Jesus was on the other side of the river, telling us to not look at sin, not looking at the inviting first step, or looking at the buildings being distorted by sin, but to look at him, to see what those dreams are meant to look like, not to use the distorting lens of sin but to see what God has created for us, yes it looks easier just to walk across the river and reach the other side apparently quicker but we need to walk towards the bridge, ignoring the water crossing over and stepping into the incredible adventure God has prepared.