Reflections in the River

"Then the angel showed me the River of the Water of Life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb" Revelation 22:1

Life is like a river...but on this earth, seldom as clear as crystal.  It is often muddy, clogged with logjams, full of rocks and rapids, with countless bends that disappear into the fog. My canoe drifts downstream with the current, sometimes without a paddle, relying only on the grace of God to guide me.  Onward, ever onward to the sea...

Yesterday, my youngest brother died, halfway around the world.  I will be 72 in ten days.  Time to beach the canoe for a while on a gravel beach and reflect.  Look at the light on the river as it passes and see where it came from.  Where it might be going. 

My mind glances back to 1998.  My husband Russ and I had crossed Otto Creek in a canoe and sat on the gravel shore, experiencing the Alaskan wilderness.  Summer, 11:30PM, glowing twilight, the spring-fed stream rippling past to join the silty Nenana River a few hundred yards away.  A beaver objected to our presence, slapped its tail on the water, then disappeared.  Silence. 

A great horned owl landed on a tall snag about a hundred yards upstream.  Then a stirring in the brush and berries behind us.  A vole ran past at breakneck speed, leaped into the creek and paddled for the far shore as fast as its tiny legs could churn.  (We guessed a fox was chasing it, and turned back at our presence.)  

Russ leaned close to me and whispered: Watch the owl!  In silence, the owl dropped from its perch, and gliding low as a Stealth bomber over the surface in front of us, plucked the vole and continued up in an unbroken arc for the aspens.  We could almost feel the wind from its wings.  Life and death at the edge of the world, the edge of night.

What is the meaning of our existence?  Of life and death?  What are my experiences on the River of Life?  What can I learn from looking at the reflections of the past....?