Water can shape a landscape. Rushing water carves out banks over time and riverbeds widen or new channels form. Trees fall creating natural bridges or obstructions. Stones are uncovered.
Several days of heavy rain over the past week have carved a trench through our mulch bed. On a walk with my husband and our Great Danes behind the spillway of the lake where we live, we stopped to see how much damage had been done by the storms.
At the upper end of the overflow ditch, rapids formed over the gravel bed designed to prevent erosion. Halfway down, the ditch widened and felled trees littered the landscape. Most had been pushed off the back of the dam the previous summer, but others held on only by the root ball where the surging water had washed away the red clay underneath.
The rushing water is beautiful without a doubt as it cascades over rock ever downstream, but the line between beauty and destruction is very fine. It’s difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. As I stood watching the currents, a scripture passage from Ezekiel came to mind.
“and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory.”
Ezekiel 43:2 NIV
https://ezekiel.bible/ezekiel-43-2
Ezekiel’s visions of God are graphically portrayed in the Old Testament prophetic writings. Creatures so bizarre that they pose a challenge for even modern artists and filmmakers with computerized technology on their side. Creatures with multiple heads and wings and wheels and eyes are described in detail, including their movements and purpose. By far the most captivating for me is that of the voice and glory of God. John confirms the sound of God’s voice in his Revelation of Jesus Christ.
“His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.”
Revelation 1:15 NIV
https://revelation.bible/revelation-1-15
At Pentecost, the advent of the Holy Spirit is similarly described as the sound of “a mighty rushing wind, or a violent bearing wind.” (Acts 2:2) God’s voice is powerful and drowns out all else. I’d imagine it’s akin to standing in a cave behind Niagara Falls or being in the boat that approaches its base as I’ve experienced only once with my older son en route to Kingston, Ontario for his first mission trip as a teen. I’d call the roar deafening. It definitely makes conversation impossible. Maybe this is part of what Ezekiel and John meant to convey in the presence of God, and probably why they fell on their faces in fear and awe-inspired worship. Their humanity was no match for the glory of God. Frail humanity cannot stand in His glorious presence.
“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight.
He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.
For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin.
People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.
For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.”
Romans 3:23-25 , 20 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.3.23-25.NLT
“For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power.
But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 15:56-57 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.15.57.NLT
And because of His sacrifice which makes us right with God, we will stand in the presence of our Creator, our eternal bodies clothed in righteousness, and we will hear Him say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.” (Matthew 25:34) We will see and know completely, even as we are seen and known.
“Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.
All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”
1 Corinthians 13:12 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.13.12.NLT
And with my voice, I will praise God with the the throngs representing every nation, tribe, people, and language in front of the throne and before the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. (Revelation 7:9)
“Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:
“Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.”
Revelation 19:6 NIV
A Fitting Reply 
I am so thankful that you continue to allow our awesome and majestic God to shape you!
I see it in your writing and I see it in your life.
May we all fully recognize and better understand the mighty God we serve.
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