Joel 3:18 — And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim.

I had in mind today to write a piece about persistence, and the need to declare The Lord — inspired, of all things, by some encouraging slogans on the wrapper of a throat sweet … but then …
Then as I flew from Portland to Dallas this morning across a good portion of the Rocky Mountains, my direction was quite changed.
The “Rocky” Mountains — don’t you think that suggests some really difficult terrain? If you do, you are absolutely right! The Rockies cover more than three thousand miles from British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico. The highest peak rises to over fourteen thousand feet. The climate varies greatly across the range, as might be expected across such a distance.
So why did these craggy difficult peaks catch my in-flight attention? It was the flowers … Even from thirty thousand feet I could see breathtaking carpets of what I think might have been red dogwood and something yellow that I couldn’t even guess at. Here was this beauty, scattered with a generous hand, rarely to be seen except from above. It occurred to me that one day the mountains will be healed, and the flowers will riot down the hillside to be seen and enjoyed by every passer by. As Paul writes:

For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:19-21 NIV)

It was this thought of the healing from decay that drew my attention to the verse in Joel that promises a time when healing waters will flow from the House Of The Lord. The image of the flowers pouring down the hillside reflects the notion of the flow of wine and milk and, even more so, the turning of the sterile mountains into fruitful gardens perpetually watered by the River of Life. Even the valley of the Acacias (for that is what Shittim is) now very dry, will be watered by a fountain flowing and fruitful. And we may trust that what is true for the land will be true for it’s inhabitants.
There is a glorious healing to come!