Water Collection

Creation is more than a backdrop. Though, in our modern times, it has become easier to divorce ourselves from the world around us, our inner worlds are in constant dialogue with the external world that we populate. Were this not true, then God would have no need to note the goodness of his created world (Genesis 1:10, 12, 18, 21, and 25). Creation is more than a means to an end. This suggests that our world has been impressed with the same intention that we have been impressed with. Prompted by God’s first act of creation, the biblical authors turn to nature for cues, themes, and meaning. For God “[has] set [his] glory in the heavens” just as much as he has done so in the human body (Psalm 8:1 NIV). As consequence, the biblical authors draw truths, themes, and meaning from nature. It should come as no surprise that we would be able to do the same. This in mind, my two essays and one poem all center on the metaphor of water. “Mosaic Metaphors” traces the motif of water throughout the Bible and throughout Moses’ life, observing the hyperlinks that water creates each time it is referred to in the Bible. “The Lord of the Rings: Metaphors of Power” orients itself around a water-themed metaphor. Its connections to the Gospel are intentionally subtle as it is meant to be contrasted with the much more biblically explicit “Mosaic Metaphors.” Finally, “Wandering Waters” is my own attempt at employing water as a metaphor, it is an attempt at naming abstract ideas by pinning them to God’s creation. While, ostensibly, these three pieces puzzle over water and its poetic and thematic implications, water is being used as a tool to understand God’s nature, human nature, and the created nature of the world that we inhabit.