I would like to you to join me on a journey deep into the forest of one of our national parks where we can clearly hear water. Let’s just walk there together in silence using our sense of hearing to guide us to that point in our journey where the forest opens up and we see that source of the water sounds. What do you see?
Ahead we see two very distinct streams flowing from just north of us winding down to the place where they meet and cascade over a small rocky outcropping. Immediately below the rocks we see white churning and all of the sediment stirred up below and for several yards and the two become one. As we walk along side of the now joined streams we begin to notice the water clear and they are indeed on stream clear to the bottom.
This is a 
metaphor for our lives.
We are each a separate stream fowling along just living our lives, until that moment we decide to join to another. Then the turbulence of working along beside another, living with another person, joining your life to another in marriage, moving to a new home, community, or any other life changing event where your life intersects with that of another, you are sure to have a period of turbulence.
Dirt, debris, and white water is sure to be stirred out as you navigate this new stream you have joined yourself to.
Eventually, you get in a rhythm and you and the stream you have joined settle into a partnership where the water is clear and you can see to the bottom.
As the terrain changes so does the stream, there will be new terrain to ride over, and fall down. New turbulence will occur and there will be a stirring up of the debris, whitewater, until things are calm again. If the terrain and turbulence are great and the earth becomes fractured the streams with separate and divide much like divorce and like moving to a new state or country, getting a new job and again there is a time of turbulence and settling and clearness again.
If you have ever had the privilege of being in a canoe or kayaking down one of these wonders, you know how tiring it can be. Sometime you roll over and get wet. But, sweet is the feeling of completion and accomplishment to those who come to the end of the journey and emerge on shore in tact.
Next time you are in the great outdoors and you come across a river or a stream, think about the metaphor.
