A few years ago I was asked to speak to a group of young people in western Canada. The arrangement was a kind of “progressive dinner” of truth. I flew across Canada to meet my hosts. We travelled to the Banff Provincial Park in the Canadian Rockies and my host, Jared Mosher, had me speak in a series of stunning settings all over the park.
During the first day we visited Johnston Canyon. The trail up the canyon followed Johnston Creek.We would hike up to see a beautiful waterfall and then we would find a spot on a ledge overlooking the roaring river where I would speak to them. The river was a bright churning of white and green. I had never seen water that looked quite like it before. I asked about it.
They said; “It’s glacial water. The snow falls on the mountains and forms glaciers. When it melts it runs down into the valley pulling powered rock with it. It’s the powdered rock that gives it that unique green cloudy color.”
In the book of Job, God asks Job if he has ever seen the treasures of the snow. The treasures of the snow empty onto the mountains and they slowly melt and release and rush down the mountains in life-giving force.
I have devoted my life to trying to preach the Bible in a lively, creative way. That requires hours of study every week. I’ve done that for over thirty years. From birth it has been my habit to attend four church services a week. In ever service the Bible is taught. I try to read the Bible every day of my life. I try to saturate my life with the Bible.
It’s like snow on the mountain. The impact of meditation on Scripture my not be immediate, but like glacier-water it melts and runs down into the valleys of your life over time to make things spiritually lush and verdant. It has a residual, time-release effect. The Word of God is absolute truth. What God says is true, is true. What God says will happen, will happen. The prophet Isaiah said the Word of God is like snow coming down and melting into our lives.
“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. “For you shall go out with joy, And be led out with peace; The mountains and the hills Shall break forth into singing before you, And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. –Isaiah 55:10-12
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
January 17, 2011