Blessed the tree who stretches its roots to the stream

Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
whose hope is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted beside the waters
that stretches out its roots to the stream:
it fears not the heat when it comes;
its leaves stay green;
in the year of drought it shows no distress,
but still bears fruit.

Jer 17:7-8

Marvel the wonders of new technology. Susie and Deliah’s circulating water fountain has proved a huge hit. No more changing water everyday. No more worrying about their not getting their fill. Like a mini-water treatment plant in our kitchen, Susie and Deliah can access clean, filtered and fresh water whenever they like.

I rarely consider modern innovation or technology miraculous. Or, for that matter, a gift from God. It is here. It is accessible. And I can pretty much learn how to use most of it. Providing Susie and Deliah fresh water is the least of it.

Kamal Krishnan of New Delhi doesn’t think it so ordinary. She’d marvel at my two cats’ ultra modern “watering hole”. Ms. Krishnan and the rest of the New Delhi community scavenges for fresh water daily. “Warning of “an unparalleled water crisis,” the [New Delhi Human Development Report] study released in August found that 25 percent of New Delhi households had no access to piped water, and that 27 percent got water for less than three hours a day.” Corporate greed, overdevelopment, human consumption, and population growth have all contributed to the Yamuna River’s demise and New Delhi’s thirst. Once the life spring of New Delhi, it is now its life threat—carrying disease, pollution, contaminated wildlife and not enough potable water to sustain its population.

It is easy to take certain comforts for granted—water, shelter, food. I expect government and society to secure these minimum benefits, but now that I reflect on it, how easily I forget that I need to stay on my watch, too.

New Delhi is the richest city in India today but can only deliver water to a handful of its residents for 3 to 4 hours a day. This situation didn’t occur overnight. In a nation that prides itself on being one of the largest democratic nations in the world, there had been little attention paid to the Yamuna as New Delhi’s economy soared and its factories and industries dumped sewage and other pollutants into its very life source.

Climate change, global warming and environment are not just buzz words. Witness India. We look to her in envy when we see her become one the fastest growing global economies. Yet we fail to recognize some disastrous failures that will eventually cause great damage to her future. The world seems to want what it wants when it wants it—NOW. It has forgotten about tomorrow. Or what it will leave behind.

I know that Susie and Deliah enjoy that water fountain. I never thought about it recycling the water it uses. I only thought about my indulging my cats. Therein lies our sin—not thinking.

India stands on the threshold of “an era of water scarcity.” It never meant to go there. People were merely thoughtless—not thinking the earth miraculous. Most inhabitants here share the same flaw.

Maybe, that’s why some of us have cats. To remind us that even the smallest parts of God’s creation have wondrous effects—sometimes even miraculous ones.

The Lord Raises The Poor from the dust......

My heart exults in the Lord, my Savior.
He raises the needy from the dust;
from the dung heap he lifts up the poor,
To seat them with nobles
and make a glorious throne their heritage.

1 Samuel: 1, 6-7

I haven’t blogged in a few days. Life’s been very busy and very good. I am blessed.

In just as many few days’ time, life in Haiti, which hadn’t been very good in the first place, went from very busy to very still. I sit in front of a TV screen and watch mostly numbed expressionless faces, traumatized by loss and nature’s wrath, by weariness.

I have no words. I have no insights. I am a very little person in the midst of a very big collapsible world. There is little I can do. I can only take comfort in God. In two cats. I get up. I work. I pray. Just as the people I see on the TV screen had done. No different. We are the same. We are one.

The world wages war sometimes. The world works together at others. In war. In peace. In perilous economies. In prosperity. In all times. In the best of times and in the worst of times, we are better together than alone.

Today, I need to believe that none of us are alone. That God is with all of us. That each poor soul lost somewhere beneath the dusty rubble of the streets of Port-au-Prince did not perish alone.

We need to always remember that God is in me and He is in you and that we are all here for each other.