07/10/2025
This is the beautiful Buffalo River. If you have been around me for any time, you know that I love kayaking and this is my favorite place to do it. Permit me to share about the fascination of Rivers. First thing that comes to mind is the song in the Disney movie, Pocohontas, "Just Around the River Bend". Yes, when you are floating on a river, there is always the mystery of what is around the bend, even if you have been on that river dozens of times. Rivers are ever flowing, ever changing. There may be a creature that you have not seen before just around the bend.
Rivers are majestic, I love the bluffs of this one rising from the water. On one kayak trip, we were surrounded by the bluffs and while we could not see lightening, thunder echoed from all around us. It was both frightening and beautiful. You could feel the power and majesty of God. The Buffalo is a flowing river, meaning you touch your paddle to the water more to keep the kayak where you want it than to actually move the kayak. The definition of relaxing, to be carried along the current while you take in the beautiful views and listen to the birds sing. We often say that it feels like Jesus is riding on the front of our kayak and laughing with joy as He shows us His creation.
I'm also aware of how the power of the river can turn dangerous in less time than a heart beat. We were caught up in the current, going faster than we could handle our kayak, when we were thrown up to a strainer - a fallen tree whose roots are creating a whirlpool One of the branches was coming straight for my stomach and I had no choice but to push us away from it, and when I did that, the kayak turned over and we were tossed out of it. I got caught in a smaller strainer, we couldn't find Shadow who was in an air pocket under the upside down kayak, and Mike was trying to catch the kayak as we were in the first mile of a 14 mile float, our phones, food, sunblock, everything we needed for the day was on the kayak. Not to mention trying to walk for 13 miles in a river would not be easy. That was our first time to overturn. The second time was a different river but on the same trip.
If you have read Revelation, you may remember that a River comes out from under His Throne in Heaven. When I think of a river, majestic, beautiful, powerful, awesome, those are words that we use to describe our God. Yet here we are on a fallen earth where tragedy strikes, and recently it has struck by the force of a river. I read a survivors story of how the ground went from barely wet to 26 foot high wall of water coming down the river, a flash flood, in a mere 45 minutes. There was no time and no place to get everyone away from the water. Yes, meterologist warned of a possible flash flood. I have heard warnings of a tornado, yet I slept in my bed. This was at night. But that is a side point to what I am trying to say.
The loss of lives, especially young children, is tragic, and there should be no minimalizing of the pain of that. But the picture in my heart, is one of Jesus with His arms filled with children and riding the river up to His Father's Throne. And maybe that vision will give someone comfort.
Blessings
