THE LAST RIVER MILE

It’s like this:

Montauk Spring pushes out crystal clear water not too far from Salem, Missouri. It forms the headwaters of the Current River; arguably the greatest Ozark stream in the state. The most spring-fed of all rivers in the state, the cold and swift waters of the Current cover about 52 river miles before being joined by the pristine Jack’s Fork River. The widening Current river feeds into the Black River around Pocahontas, Arkansas, as the rolling Ozark mountain country gives way to flatlands. The Black River meets the wider White River near Jackson Port, Arkansas. Close to the Arkansas/Mississippi border the White River flows into the mighty Mississippi River around a place called Montgomery Point. And Old Man River meets the waters of the Gulf of Mexico somewhere near Venice, Louisiana.

Water flow on this good Earth is resolute and relentless. A drop of water that emerges at Montauk Spring will make it to the sea. Barriers may block the flow for a time. Drought may lessen the flow. Humans may try to convince themselves they “control” the flow, only to have to deal with the next hundred year flood. The flow of water may be slowed, redirected, channeled, pooled, and even temporarily stopped. But water will find its way to the ocean. The Current River and waters it feeds existed before Salem, Pocahontas, Jackson Port, Montgomery Point, and Venice. And it will outlast them all. The flow is relentless and will not be denied.

That’s what God is like. God’s love is not some passive, sentimental, benign thing. It is a persistent flow. It will push past denials, confinements, definitions, theologies, doctrines and all manner of things we humans use to try to dam it up. It pushed past the cross and death itself. It will not be denied. Like a drop of water moving to the sea, it will find a way. The love of God wins in the end.

Every Ozark stream is a cathedral to me. (Especially the Current River, where I began my life as a river-rat 61 years ago.) I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.