Water Under The Bridge

Do you know how many phrases and expressions we commonly use in our English language that actually have their origin in the Bible? I bet you don’t. I don’t either, but I know there are a whole lot of them. And every time I come across one, I am reminded again of how integral the Bible is to the fabric of our society even when we don’t realize it. The troubling part about this is that when we thoughtlessly dismiss our Christian heritage and walk away from it we have really no idea what all we are leaving behind! No idea.

Anyway, I came across this passage a while back.

“You will surely forget your trouble, recalling it only as waters gone by.” Job 11:16

Isn’t that beautiful? I immediately thought of the expression ‘water under the bridge’.

I live beside a river and when the weather is warm we sometimes have the opportunity to spend some time in and around the water. The river is mesmerizing. The way it moves can be almost hypnotic. I can remember as a kid often finding a piece of wood or something to throw into the water just to watch it pass out of sight… gone!

[Remember the fascination of that ½ hour show about the little wooden Indian in his canoe that the CBC did back in 1966 called ‘Paddle To The Sea’?]

Time is like water. It flows. It never stops. It is unstoppable. And sometimes we lament that. There is a certain melancholy sense one gets deep in your heart when you just simply stand and watch the water flow on. There is a feeling of loss just like we feel about time as it is passing … passing … passing…

But then, as this passage from Job reminds us, there is also something very good about that too. Because all of us have things in our lives that we want to see pass away.

You may have had someone say to you that when you think of your troubles you should remember ‘this too shall pass’. There is a lot of comfort in that.


This Too Shall Pass

If I can endure for this minute
Whatever is happening to me,
No matter how heavy my heart is
Or how dark the moment may be-

If I can remain calm and quiet
With all the world crashing about me,
Secure in the knowledge God loves me
When everyone else seems to doubt me-

If I can but keep on believing
What I know in my heart to be true,
That darkness will fade with the morning
And that this will pass away, too-

Then nothing in life can defeat me
For as long as this knowledge remains
I can suffer whatever is happening
For I know God will break all of the chains

That are binding me tight in the darkness
And trying to fill me with fear-
For there is no night without dawning
And I know that my morning is near.

...Helen Steiner Rice