While I was taking a walk in the park, I noticed a pair of swans just over the fence. They were drinking water from a stream which flowed down from the hills above the town. The water was fresh and clean.
The swans had been swimming around in the sea which is salt water and contaminated with all sorts of rubbish of plastic containers etc. The swans had the sense to leave the filth of the sea to get a good supply of fresh water to drink.
I began to think of the sea, with all its rubbish and pollution, and likened it to the world of sin in which we live. It’s so easy to become contaminated with the filth of sin in our world. We are surrounded by it. The Internet, TV., magazines etc. all have the potential to contaminate us if we are not careful.
We don’t need to get contaminated. The swans prove this to us because they are in the contaminated sea and yet stay pure white. Their secret lies in the words of a hymn that came to mind as I thought about this message:
Springs of Living Water — by John W. Peterson
I thirsted in the barren land of sin and shame,
And nothing satisfying there I found;
But to the blessed cross of Christ one day I came,
Where springs of living water did abound.
Drinking at the streams of living water,
Happy now am I, my soul they satisfy;
Drinking at the streams of living water,
O wonderful and bountiful supply.
“Having, therefore, these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1 KJV)
As I watched, I realized that the swans hadn’t stopped to drink until they had made their way far enough up the stream to where the fresh water was no longer mixed with the contaminated sea water. The message I was getting was that as Christians, we should not live our lives too near the sinful practises of the world. We should get as close to the source of the living stream which is Christ. Drink from Him, the fountain which is pure and clean.
The good news is, we can have all our sins washed away in the stream and also drink from it.
O Christ, He is the Fountain — By Anne Ross Cousin
Oh Christ, He is the fountain,
The deep sweet well of love!
The streams on earth I’ve tasted,
More deep I’ll drink above.
There to an ocean fullness
His mercy doth expand,
And glory, glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land!