Today I saw a picture of crystal clear water lapping gently on some shiny pebbles. Being Good Friday, I immediately thought of the red blood and the water that was described as having come out of Jesus's side when a soldier had pierced Him after He had taken His last breath (as in John 29:34). It is a natural phenomenon that after death, due to gravity, the heavier red corpuscles can separate from the lighter watery plasma. The medical explanation and understanding would not have been known at that time but it was a proof of death. This can also represent the significance of Jesus, as the perfect sacrificial lamb, giving up His life blood, to give us eternal life. He had said, whilst alive on earth, that God would give us His Holy Spirit and He was the living water (John 4:14; 7:38-39). For forty days following His death on the cross, Jesus appeared to His followers to prove He had conquered death and to remind them to wait for God's Holy Spirit (as in Acts 1:3-5). In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, Adam and Eve were banned access from the Tree of Life and the living waters (as in Genesis 2:9-19; 3:22). In the final chapter of the Bible: "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 ...On each side of the river stood the tree of life" (Revelation 22:1-2). By God's grace (not our efforts) God's Holy Spirit and eternal life are now available to all. The final verse of the entire Bible says "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen".
