"There is a river of life all around us
It's our common ground, the gift we are given
Ocean and sky, the wild of the forest,
Were here long before us and meant for all children
We bring our differences, our hopes our faith our fears
We'll build a home for love in this family
For the light that brought us here"
Blueprints by Peter Mayer and Jim Mayer
I received a note from Gary White, Executive Director of
Water Partners International which read, "I thought that given the
connection to water you have developed, you might want to refer folks to our
website at www.water.org
as a way to connect with the physical needs related to water present in our
world today. There are a billion people thirsting!"
I checked out the website, and the mission of this wonderful
and wonder-filled organization is:
"We envision the day when everyone in the world can
take a safe drink of water. It is easy to take for granted ready access to a
safe supply of drinking water. Yet, more than one billion people lack this most
basic commodity. Creating accessible, safe water supplies in developing
countries liberates people to live healthier, fuller, more productive
lives."
WOW! I think that is quite a dream (and I often describe the
word "WOW" as the acronym for Walking On Water. Walking on
water is possible when we follow God's invitation. Miracles do happen!
Today is World Water Day. The website for
WaterPartners International has all sorts of re-freshing ideas on how to
celebrate the day. You might also want to check out www.worldwaterday.org. Their
tagline is "help make the difference."
Three years ago, I quoted from Peter's song which goes,
"There is a river of life all around us."
At that time the war with Iraq had officially begun. I
reasoned that if there is a "river of life," that conversely there must
also be a "river of death." It seemed to me at that time, and I'm even more convinced of
it at this time, that we live someplace between those two rivers, i.e., that we
are citizens of Mesopotamia (which literally means, between the rivers). Mesopotamia was
name of the land that was between the Tigris and the Euphrates
Rivers. If you take a look at any map
http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_mesopotamia.htm you can see that Baghdad is right in the middle of all of
this.
I found a cool tool on the web entitled "How far it
is?" So I queried how far is Denver from Baghdad?
The answer is:
- Distance between Denver, Colorado, United States and Baghdad, Iraq, as the crow flies: 7038 miles (11326 km) (6116 nautical miles)
- Initial heading from Denver to Baghdad: north-northeast (25.9 degrees)
- Initial heading from Baghdad to Denver: north-northwest (336.4 degrees)
Life between the sets of two rivers, the river of life and
the river of death, the Tigris and Euphrates, is challenging and at times is
rough and tough. And yet, on World Water Day we are called to recognize our
humanity and commonality.
There is a text called the Song of the Three Young Men
which has a hymn, "All You Works of the Lord", or in Latin,
Benedicite, omnia opera. I'm going to lift up a several of the verses:
You showers and dew, bless the Lord-
Praise him and magnify him forever;
You dews and frost, bless the Lord
You frost and cold, bless the Lord...
You wells and springs, bless the Lord;
You rivers and seas, bless the Lord;
You whales and all who move in the waters, bless the Lord,
Praise him and magnify him forever...
On this World Water Day, I'd like to propose a toast (of
h2o, of course) to folks like Gary White and organizations like WaterPartners
International:
May your dream of accessible and potable water be realized,
keep stirrin' up the water,
Here's to you and may God bless you in all that you dew (pun
intended)
rtg
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