I lived briefly in Flagstaff, Arizona, before coming to teach at BYU,
and I admired many families who lived there for many generations
and who seemed to know every trail, every favorite campsite, every character of the land.
They knew their own history and the land's history.
So when I came to BYU a few years later,
I was determined to develop a similar sense of place for me and my family.
I didn't realize at first that this would involve a kind of spiritual pilgrimage
and some needed healing,
but I found I was drawn to water.
I think this is because I had grown up around water.
Rivers, ponds, and the ocean were accessible and abundant in Connecticut where I grew up.
According to the great Western writer, Wallace Stegner, however,
if you're going to live in the American West, you have to get over the color green
and adapt to water scarcity.
Water is beautiful, gracious, even holy.
Water reminds us of nature's capacity to renew itself.
Water washes and renews us.
We cannot live without it.
Jesus asked us to immerse ourselves entirely in it in order to mark our rebirth in Him.
We drink water every week to remind ourselves of His atoning blood.
He called Himself the Living Water.
Maybe because its scarcity makes it more precious,
the biblical prophets speak of mountain water as a reminder of God's mercy.
Mountain water relies on snowpack and spring runoff.
That runoff fills the streams and the rivers and the aquifers
that bless our location here in Utah Valley.
It makes me think of Moses striking the rock
and bringing life-giving water to an arid and fragile desert.
My drinking water, I eventually learned, comes from right here in Rock Canyon.
I also learned that the canyon was known as the house of the gods by the Ute Indians
who were here before the Latter-day Saint pioneers.
Today the canyon frames our view of the Provo Temple.
I used to think that loving nature required you to go to exotic places
where you can admire exceptional beauty,
but I only needed to explore my own neighborhood.
When I walk in Rock Canyon, I feel that I have entered a sacred space.
I think of my own sorrows and losses of loved ones.
I find that the wonder I feel at God's creations here in Rock Canyon
helps me to be whole.
When we are fortunate to have heavy snowfall in the winter,
the creek in Rock Canyon runs for several months.
The runoff is loud and unruly and fast.
There is nothing like the sound of mountain water.
Mountain water has always been unpredictable.
That is the condition of living in the mountains.
It is getting more precious all the time.
Snowpack is predicted to decline as a result of a changing climate.
Because it is rare and beautiful,
this runoff reminds me of my dependence on God's grace
and of my responsibility to appreciate, protect, and preserve the beauty of God's bounty.
Stewardship is one way to honor God's Son,
the Living Water and the Creator of this beautiful world.
I have also found that it is a good way to feel like I am home.