June 9 - Isaiah 48:18

“If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.”

My first thought at reading this is that it sounds like my mom.  I got a lot of “If only” statements from her.  But, the second thought I had was at the beauty of the metaphors.  

There is nothing like the sound and movement of a running river.  Even though I’m only several hundred yards from the river at the cabin, I don’t hear it unless it is nearly at flood stage and rises up to the top of the bank.  But, when that happens and I hear the movement of the water, it is a wonderful sound.  When I was younger and used to walk the river with Dad while fishing, sometimes I would stop and just listen to the water move around me, flowing past me, heading to its next destination. It would make ripples around my legs and the sound would change when it encountered rocks and trees in the water, but that moving water was something quite peaceful.

I love spending time fishing with Dad, whether it was walking the river or sitting in a boat at 4:30 in the morning on a lake in Canada traveling to the place he knew would surrender walleye to us.  Water has that effect … peace like a river.  Yes, I know that sensation.

Righteousness like the waves of the sea.

I was in San Francisco one summer and managed to talk the person I was with into taking a few moments to enjoy the waves crashing against rocks rather than rush to the next place we were going to tour.  I’ve seen the ocean on the east coast and I’ve seen the gulf in Florida, but the Pacific Ocean is wild in its activity.  Those swells crash with great power against the rocks of the coastline.  Over time they change the shape of those rocks as they beat against them in their power.

Righteousness flows like waves of the sea, changing everything with which it comes into contact, never ceasing, never relenting … always transforming.

Our peace can be like a river; our righteousness like the waves of the sea.