Read: Deuteronomy 8:1-10
A land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up. (v. 7 NRSV)
Some years ago I took a group of college students hiking in the Grand Canyon. An arid and often desolate land, water is very scarce. In a place formed by flowing water, there is now precious little water to drink. Each day we had to carry water with us between campsites. At a pound to a pint, that added up to quite a bit of extra weight. After a week in the canyon we gained a deeper appreciation for the ability to simply turn on a tap at home for fresh drinking water.
It is no accident that Israel’s promised land is described not only as a place flowing with milk and honey but also a place flowing with water. It is “a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills.” To people traveling for forty years in a hot and dry desert, this must have been exceedingly good news. Imagine not having to plan your every step according to where the next well was located. Imagine not worrying whether the spring would be dried up. Imagine having water in abundance.
Water is one of the essentials of life. Without it we cannot live very long. Any good land must have it. May we, as this text reminds us, bless God for the good land he has given us and the water he so abundantly provides.
As you pray, bless God for the many blessings bestowed on us.
Steve Bouma-Prediger is the Leonard and Marjorie Mass Professor of Reformed Theology at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. A graduate of Hope College, his Ph.D. is in religious studies from The University of Chicago. His most recent book is Earthkeeping and Character: Exploring a Christian Ecological Virtue Ethic.
When not teaching or writing, he spends as much time as possible canoeing or backpacking in his favorite places in North America or simply hiking among the magnificent trees in southwest Michigan parks.
