The Hydrologic Cycle

More water what a surprise, blame my therapist. She wanted me to explore precipitation as a metaphor for love so of course being the over achiever that I am I decided to tackle the entire water cycle.

The stages of the hydrologic or water cycle are: 

  • evaporation where liquid turns into vapor
  • condensation, where vapor turns into clouds
  • precipitation, where water falls back to Earth as rain, snow, or hail
  • collection where water gathers in oceans, rivers and other bodies
  • transpiration water released by plants
  • Runoff water released over the land
  • Infiltration water soaking into the ground 

Let's start with evaporation. It requires heat and a condensation nuclei that the evaporated water adheres to forming clouds (condensation). Without that slight impurity there will be no cloud formation no condensation. There is no need for the Living Water. The amount of water in the air is called the relative humidity. The hotter the air the more space there is for water. So in other words, when God turns up the heat in our lives there is literally more space in the atmosphere to hold on to His Living Water.

After clouds form they are pushed by the wind eventually they are pushed against mountains and as they rise the temperature drops this increases the pressure literally squeezing water out of the clouds this process is called precipitation. Depending upon the ambient air temperature this water can fall as rain, snow or even hail, sometimes its in combination like slush. One side of the mountain gets the rainfall the other side remains dry and is called the rain shadow. 

When I think of rain I draw a parallel to Christ's blood. Without the rain there would be no life, without the blood there would be no new life. Yet many of us try to avoid the rains that God brings into our life. and sometimes like the rain shadow we have positioned ourselves in the wrong place.  As someone who was raised in a desert I can tell you there is nothing quite like a desert in bloom after a rainfall. 

Collection is where the water pools. It can be as large as an ocean or as small as a pond. If this is a metaphor for faith How large is your collection? Where do you allow God's grace and mercy to fall and pool in your life?

When the water falls on a mountain top as rain or snow gravity will eventually pull it down the mountain side as runoff. This runoff is often in the form of rivers (For more on rivers see the Living Water 2)

To me though the two most interesting stages are  infiltration and transpiration especially if we are looking at the water as a metaphor for God's love. 

In infiltration the water is absorbed into the soil (For more about soil see Nothing but Dirt) if you remember our earlier post the ability of the soil to absorb and retain the water depends on several factors such as the permeability and porosity, but the ideal soil is loam which is an equal combination of sand, silt and clay. That means the ideal soil lets some water through very quickly, some at a slower tempo and some it hangs on to. Doesn't that sound like our lives and how we respond to God's truth.

Some water just passes through because we are not ready to own it. Some we take a good long drink from It helps us to grow and some is so elemental that we hoard it near our hearts and refuse to let it go. Obviously we want God's love to penetrate us so infiltration is incredibly important but more than that we want God's love to become part of us and that is where transpiration reigns. Of all the stages of the hydrologic cycle transpirtion is the only stage where the "water" is incorporated into a living organism.

The infiltrated water is absorbed into the roots of a plant where the chloroplasts take water, nutrients and sunlight to make more plant. Whatever is left over is transpired back into the air, in other words transpiration is the equivalent of a plant breathing. (To see the significance of breathing see Spiritual Covid)

Did you know that the air we exhale is full of water vapor? Think of your breath on a cold day. It is that same water in the air that makes it cooler to stand under a tree during a scorcher, According to Jesus' teachings, the water of life represents eternal life (Jn 4:14). And if we want to receive eternal life, we must go to the Spirit and the Bride. “The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come! ' … and whoever wishes, let them take the free gift of the water of life.”

Did you catch it? Maybe gasp a little? We need the water and the air to walk in the Spirit. In the Book of Revelation (21:6 and 22:1), as well as the Gospel of John, the term Water of Life refers to the Holy Spirit. We need to let God's love penetrate into our inner being and once it is there breathe to maintain the presence of the Holy Spirit.

That means embracing the rain and the floods, allowing God to soften our Rocky Soil and remembering God's promise, our hope a rainbow- Jesus. Also remembering the greatest factor for erosion after the sun is water and God is constantly using both His Son and the Holy Spirit to improve the fertility of our hearts so that spiritual fruit can bloom,

Let it Rain

Let it rain, let it rain
Open the floodgates of Heaven
Let it rain, let it rain
Open the floodgates of Heaven
Let it

[Verse]
I feel the rains of Your love
Feel the winds of Your spirit
Now the heartbeat of Heaven
Let us hear
I feel the rains of Your love
Feel the winds of Your spirit
Now the heartbeat of Heaven
(Let's sing that again, I feel)
I feel the rains of Your love
Feel the winds of Your spirit
Now the heartbeat of Heaven
Let us hear
I feel the rains of Your love
Feel the winds of Your spirit
Now the heartbeat of Heaven
Let us hear

[Chorus]
Let it rain, let it rain
Open the floodgates of Heaven
(Sing it)
Let it rain, let it rain
Open the floodgates of Heaven
(Sing it again, let it)
Let it rain, let it rain
Open the floodgates of Heaven
Let it rain, let it rain
Open the floodgates of Heaven

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[Verse]
I feel the rains of Your love
(Sing it)
Feel the winds of Your spirit
Now the heartbeat of Heaven
Let us hear
I feel the rains of Your love
Feel the winds of Your spirit
Now the heartbeat of Heaven
Let us hear
(Sing it, I feel)
I feel the rains of Your love
Feel the winds of Your spirit
Now the heartbeat of Heaven
Let us hear
I feel the rains of Your love
Feel the winds of Your spirit
Now the heartbeat of Heaven
(Sing it, let it rain)

[Chorus]
Let it rain, let it rain
(Open)
Open the floodgates of Heaven
Let it rain, let it rain
(Lift your voice, open, open up, open up)
Open the floodgates of Heaven
Let it rain
[Bridge]
(Let it rain, let it rain)
(Let it rain, let it rain)
Cause we want to see You
Show us Your glory
We wanna know You, Lord
(And we wanna see)
We wanna see You
Show us Your glory
And we wanna know You
(Sing it, let it rain)

[Chorus]
Let it rain, let it rain
Open the floodgates of Heaven
Let it rain, let it rain
Open the floodgates of Heaven
(Lift your voice, sing it again, let it rain)
Let it rain, let it rain
Open the floodgates of Heaven
Let it rain, let it rain
(Open)
Open the floodgates of Heaven
(Sing it again)
Let it rain, let it rain
Open the floodgates of Heaven
(Pour out your spirit)
Let it rain, let it rain
Open the floodgates of Heaven
[Outro]
(God, that's the cry of this generation)
Let it rain, let it rain
(That the heavens would open up over us)
Open the floodgates of Heaven
(Let it rain, let it rain in this place)
Let it rain, let it rain
(Let it rain over this nation, God)
Open the floodgates of Heaven





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