As our final project for a high school earth science class, a friend and
I built a stream table. With extensive help from my father, we built a long
plywood box with a hinge in the middle. Then we lined it with plastic and
filled it with sand. At one end we attached a hose. At the other end was a
drainage hole. After assembling all of it, we raised one end of the stream
table, turned on the water, and watched as it created a path directly to the
hole at the other end. The next part of the experiment was to place a rock in
the stream and watch how it changed the path of the water.
This project taught me as much about life as it did about science. I
learned that I can’t change the direction things are going if I’m on the bank
of the river. I have to step into the stream of life and stand there to divert
the flow. That’s what Jesus did. The Bible refers to salvation as a rock
(2 Sam. 22:47; Ps. 62:2,6-7), and the apostle Paul clarifies that Christ
is that Rock (1 Cor. 10:4). God placed Jesus in the stream of history to change
its course.
When we remain steadfast in Christ, abounding in the work of the Lord,
God uses us to change the course of history through acts of obedience that turn
others to Him.