The Amazon
“There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God…” [Psalm 46:4]
The Amazon is undoubtedly the greatest river in the world by many measures. For starters, the volume of water it carries to the sea equals approximately 20 percent of all the freshwater discharge into the oceans in the world (one-fifth). In one second it pours 60 million gallons into the Atlantic. The drainage basin of the Amazon River and its many tributaries covers 2,720,000 square miles. It is also the longest river in the world at over 4,220 miles long. During the rainy season sections of the massive river can be up to 24 miles wide. The mouth of the Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that even after traveling more than 100 miles out to sea you can still dip fresh water out of the ocean. In fact, the volume of water surging from the Amazon River is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined, and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States.
The Amazon River is home to many other “extremes” of the natural world. Of course it provides residence to the world’s biggest snake, the anaconda, and the world’s most ferocious fish, the piranha. Catfish that live here have all the room they want to grow as big as nature will allow. Some have been captured weighing over 200 pounds! The largest freshwater fish in the world, the arapaima, lives in the waters of the Amazon River. They have been found to reach 15 feet in length and can weigh up to 440 pounds. There are over 2,000 known species of fish that live in the Amazon, and more are being discovered all the time. More than 4,000 species of butterflies have been identified there.
Just as the Amazon is a river teeming with life, the Bible speaks of a river of life that flows from the throne of God. Ezekiel describes a future picture of nature that also speaks of a great river. “And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes” (Ezekiel 47:9). Someday I want to stand in that river, don’t you?
