The Tale of the Sands

Recently, I ran across this wonderful illustration--enjoy!

The Tale of the Sands is about a little stream that wanted to cross the desert. Each time it tried it would be swallowed up in the hot desert sand. But one day a voice was heard reassuring the stream that it could cross the desert. When the stream inquired of the voice, this is what it was told.

"By hurtling in your own accustomed way you cannot get across. You will either disappear or become a marsh. You must allow the wind to carry you over, to your destination."

The stream could cross the desert by allowing itself to be absorbed in the wind. But the stream objected to this idea, since it had never been absorbed before. The stream wanted to maintain its individuality. If that were lost, how could the stream be itself?

"The wind," said the sand, "takes up water, carries it over the desert, and then lets it fall again. Falling as rain, the water again becomes a river."

The voice reminded the stream that its essential part is always being carried away to form a stream again, and this essential part is always elusive. So the stream raised its vapor into the welcoming arms of the wind, which bore it along gently and easily, letting it fall in the mountains miles away.

In this way, the stream learned its true identity from the sands which extend from the riverside all the way to the mountain. Thus it is said that the way traversed by the Stream of Life is written in the Sands.

(For Creation's Sake: Preaching, Ecology, & Justice. Edited by Dieter T. Hessel, The Geneva Press, Philadelphia, 1985, p. 53)