Lessons From A Waterfall

By Randy Knapp

I stood motionless watching the waterfall in motion. The cascade leaped free from the top of the cliff transforming into white lacy streamers reaching like a medusa’s tentacles toward the quiet pool at its base. The roar of the freefall, water sheets ripping to shreds, the plunge and crash of tons of water, painted a stunning picture starkly contrasting the waterfall’s colossal majesty with the pool’s tranquil beauty. The power of the water’s plunge formed wind currents that eddied and billowed out toward me carrying a token of mist that kissed me on my cheek and fogged my sunglasses.

The beauty of a waterfall is often recorded in a single photograph or a short video. The moment is captured in images, but the hidden tale that gives the moment its meaning remains unexplored. The fall’s story cannot be contained in the period of time between the flash of freefall and the instant of impact. Its life begins “once upon a time, long ago and far away.”

Water evaporates from the oceans, then rises high into the atmosphere where it cools and condenses, forming clouds. The clouds flow with the air currents over the mountains where cold mist collides and forms rain drops that fall back to the earth.

The water seeps into the soil and then down into the rock formations where it may travel for many years, moving a few molecules at a time through the cracks and interstitial spaces between the rock crystals.

Eventually the water migrates to a fissure leading toward the surface where it begins to flow in the open. It forms into rivulets and streams flowing downhill toward the top of a cliff where it leaps free into the air, taking on the form of the waterfall.

It’s pretty easy to assume that we understand a waterfall after viewing it a few times. The high flood of spring differs from the reduced volume of the summer flows, though the falls seem much the same. But viewed in the middle of January its character is completely different. The waterfall is painted with icicles in stark blues and brilliant whites. The roar and the mists are often gone. The waterfall is transformed by time.

When we determine that we know the character attributes and the personality traits of an individual after several casual encounters we make the same miscalculations as when we view something like a waterfall and claim to understand its characteristics after only a few short visits. To completely understand the waterfall we must comprehend that it is a momentary event in a story many years in the making.

God does not determine our worth based on momentary episodes. He sees every event in our lives at once, from the cradle to the grave, unhindered by the confining constraints of time. It is with this complete comprehension that He understands us and lavishes His love on us. He knows us entirely and His unconditional love reflects that comprehension.

When we learn to love others as God loves us, we will understand the unbounded true wealth of a human soul. Our extended vision will see past momentary flaws to recognize the person who is a diamond in the rough.

Randy writes from Medford, Oregon knappsnest@msn.com