MAIM CHAIM: Living Water

Two more pictures form the desert and we’ll move on.


This picture shows a location in the Negev called En Gedi. Today, En Gedi is a nature reserve and a fascinating place in the desert.  When I visited En Gedi for the first time in 2008, our teacher led us in from the back of the park so we didn’t know where we were. I am not kidding when I say that you couldn’t tell you were approaching water until you were practically right on top of it.

The whole scene was fascinating.  One minute, we were walking in a desert almost identical to the picture in our last post, and the next minute we were staring at a waterfall.  To say that such a location is refreshing in the desert would be an understatement.  On that point, the picture almost writes this blog post itself.

This kind of water is called maim chaim in the Hebrew.  Maim chaim is “living water.”  Living water comes from God — either from rain or a spring. For living water to be “living,” it cannot be moved by human hands.  You cannot get living water from a cistern or a bucket.  En Gedi is a great example of living water.  Again, we were invited to understand that our call is to be “living water” for people in their deserts and to reflect on those people who have been En Gedi in our lives.



This second picture shows a wadi flood.  Wadis are deep canyons cut into the desert terrain; again, the picture in the last post also shows a wadi.  I was shocked to learn that the number one cause of death in the desert is flood.  During the rainy season, rain will fall in a distant region. The rain comes in such quantity and the ground is so dry that the water rushes to the lowest point.  These wadis flood at an incredible rate; I was told that if I was in a wadi and heard the sound of a train, I had about 90 seconds to get out of the wadi.

Besides being incredibly destructive, these wadi floods leave behind many biblical images. Look at this passage from Psalm 69:

But I pray to you, Lord,
    in the time of your favor;
in your great love, O God,
    answer me with your sure salvation.
Rescue me from the mire,
    do not let me sink;
deliver me from those who hate me,
    from the deep waters.
Do not let the floodwaters engulf me
    or the depths swallow me up
    or the pit close its mouth over me.

The floods leave behind puddles of mud (or “mire”) that is so sticky that a person or animal can be trapped without any place to go.  In some cases, this mire can be trickier than quicksand.

Jesus used this wadi flood imagery, as well.  He mentioned that anyone who listened to His teaching was like a man who built his house on the rock, but the fool who didn’t was like one who built his house on the sand.  I have been told by people in construction that sand is a great building material.  It is flexible, it packs solid.  So was Jesus wrong?

The people of the desert would understand that the “sand” is found in the bottom of the wadi; nobody builds their house in the bottom of the wadi.  But the man who listens to Jesus is like a man who builds his house on the rock (or the “cliff face”), out of the path of floods.

Needless to say, the desert is full of images that help us grow into the people and partners God is looking to use in His great Kingdom Project.