water. . .

i was out at the bay thursday through saturday to have clinic on friday for pregnant moms.  i was supposed to go on wednesday, but ended up with a wonderful case of strep throat and figured i shouldn't share that with a bunch of expecting mothers!!  i still wanted to go because there is a new american nurse who is going to be at the bay for a year and i am teaching her how to do prenatal consults for the times i am not here. . . anyway, that isn't the point of what i am writing about.

while i was at the bay it rained.  that isn't a completely amazing fact.  the interesting aspect was it also flooded.  it appears that there is a flood plain through the front yard of the houses and clinic.  it was later friday night, we were playing cards by flashlight (you should try it!!) and one of the workers said, the water is coming.  then we could hear it. . . it sounded just like a river and it washed through the front yard.  it wasn't too high, or high enough that it was going to come in the house, but the sound and the power of it was amazing.  i began to think about the power that water holds.  if it would have been just a foot higher, we would have had no control over keeping it out of the house, no control over keeping it from washing away the items in the house.  the power of that rushing water stuck with my thoughts.

saturday while traveling back to st. louis du nord we were driving beside the ocean.  for those of you who have been here, you will have a visual of what i am talking about.  there is a boat that has been sitting right off the coast in the ocean for as long as i have been coming here, that is at least 10 years!  slowly but surely the boat has been worn down.  it changed from a boat, to two large pieces of metal and the other day i noticed that it was just a little bit of metal sticking out from the ocean surface.  

i thought back again to the water.  to the power of water.  water can be a strong force like a flood, or a slow steady force of the ocean's tide.  

the water reminded me in a way of God's love.  at times it is such a strong force like a flood, but it is also constant like the ocean's tide.  that is a comfort to me.