The River Flows

In Christ Alone is my favorite among the songs about the death and resurrection of Jesus. I like its old-school hymnal like quality. The melody is pretty simple and repetitive, yet the lyric builds a dynamic sense of drama as it progresses from Christ’s suffering to the resurrection.

“Then bursting forth in glorious Day Up from the grave He rose again”

The passion in it gives me goose bumps every time. “Bursting forth” has become the phrase I associate with Easter.

When I visited my host family on Easter Sunday, they greeted me with “He is risen!” It’s not something I grew up with though probably a standard Easter greeting for many churches. I’ve been around them enough to know how to respond but it took me a couple clumsy seconds to recall and blurt out “He is risen indeed...!!”

Saying that out loud let something loose inside, which made me want to laugh and cry at the same time. It wasn’t a violent explosion but still a bursting of some sort with force. Perhaps like a flower in early spring spurting out of frozen earth.

Another theme of surging I encountered was the river. In the Easter service Pastor Ken talked about various representations in the Bible of a river running through the garden. The least familiar image for me was Jesus’ tomb being in a garden (John 19:41) and the river of life flowing out of it. I’ve never thought of it as a part of the recurring river/garden motifs, so it was pretty cool.

- Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! Amos 5:24

Jesus made himself the ultimate sacrifice to God who favors justice and mercy over choice offering. The salvation was complete but not over as His love continues to flow through those who believe in Him: to break the yoke, to set the captive free, to heal the sick, to comfort the broken hearted, to feed the hungry…

What Ken said lingered in me. Salvation is not just the ticket to go to heaven when we die, but it is also the deed of cession to bring heavenly kingdom down here, on this earth.

…The trick is how to be a good conduit…

May the joy of His resurrection bloom in our hearts and let the living water flow, flow, and flow like a rolling river.