Springs of Life-giving Water

The spring rains made this creek look especially healthy.  I was born in a house beside this creek, just a little further downstream from where I took this picture.
When I was little, my cousins and I took a tin cup and some peanut butter and Ritz cracker sandwiches that we had made and hiked up alongside a stream that feeds this creek.  That stream also fed the town reservoir.  We figured that meant the water in that stream was safe to drink, so above the reservoir we somehow got out on a big rock in the middle of the stream and sat down and ate our cracker sandwiches and dipped our tin cup into the stream and drank the cold, clear water.  I remember that it was April because we were afraid that our parents might find out that we had sat on a rock.  We were forbidden to sit on the ground in a month with an "r" in it.
Believe it or not, that pleasant memory came back to me out of the combination of this picture and my prayer reflection this morning on Apocalypse 7:14-17, which speaks of "springs of life-giving water."  The passage promises an idyllic life where God will provide shelter and food and water and will protect us from sunburn and even wipe away every tear from our eyes.  In a strange reversal, the Lamb will shepherd us and lead us to springs of life-giving water.  Both here and hereafter.