And the
mikveh IS the water.
Mikveh or mikvah (Hebrew: מִקְוֶה / מקווה, Modern mikve, Tiberian miqwe, pl. mikva'ot, mikvoth, mikvot, or (Yiddish) mikves,[1][2] lit. "a collection") is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism[3] to achieve ritual purity.
Flowing i.e. living waters are also tears.
Jeremiah 31
15 Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.
16 Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
17 And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.
18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God.
19 Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.
20 Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD.
Tears are seeds (visually even) that are sown by a mother's love, mercy, and devotion. Put the concept together with the above passage, the mikveh, and also the water cycle metaphor:
The water cycle involves the exchange of energy, which leads to temperature changes. When water evaporates, it takes up energy from its surroundings and cools the environment. When it condenses, it releases energy and warms the environment. These heat exchanges influence climate.
The evaporative phase of the cycle purifies water which then replenishes the land with freshwater. The flow of liquid water and ice transports minerals across the globe. It is also involved in reshaping the geological features of the Earth, through processes including erosion and sedimentation. The water cycle is also essential for the maintenance of most life and ecosystems on the planet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_cycle
Some of those seeds (tears) fell by the way side:
Genesis 35
16 And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath [fruition]: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour.
17 And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also.
18 And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.
19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath [fruition], which [she] is Bethlehem.
Luke 8:11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
Luke 8:12 Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
(Note that Benoni was spirited away along with his mother, never to be mentioned again. "Son of my sorrow" - the perceived futility of extertion - is also "son of my strength".)
It does not say what exactly happened to those seeds, only that the birds came and snatched them away, and that this represented the work of the devil. Snatching hope out of hearts lest they should believe. Yet, another of life's metaphors is that birds gobble up seeds and then deposit (sow) them far from the original plant.
See, if the devil knew what he were doing, he wouldn't have done that.
Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
In the world of languages, the sound of the "m" is known all over the globe as baby's first sound to call his mother: ma ma, mama. Hebrew: em, ima. The Hebrew letter mem means water.
Ima (mom) rhymes with dima (tear).
Evil is short-sided. It will pride itself on anticipating 15 chess moves ahead, unaware that God is calculating by seeing the long view, more like a 1000 moves and beyond.
This Redemption process is a whole lot bigger in scope than most can wrap their minds around. The Jewish writers understand that Rachel is intrinsic to Redemption, as she was buried along the road, crying for the exiles who passed by. In her tears of love and mercy is the hope and certainty of their return.
The Hebrew word Tikvah appears all over Israel. There are street names, municipalities, songs, and even the National Anthem that have this word. It means "HOPE".
And
The ancient symbol of Hope is an ANCHOR. Our Hope in the One True God is what keeps us from drifting around and getting shipwrecked!
hope (n.)
late Old English hopa "confidence in the future," especially "God or Christ as a basis for hope," from hope (v.). From c. 1200 as "expectation of something desired;" also "trust, confidence; wishful desire;" late 14c. as "thing hoped for," also "grounds or basis for hope." Personified since c. 1300. Related: Hopes.
hope (v.)
Old English hopian "have the theological virtue of Hope; hope for (salvation, mercy), trust in (God's word)," also "to have trust, have confidence; assume confidently or trust" (that something is or will be so), a word of unknown origin. Not the usual Germanic term for this, but in use in North Sea Germanic languages (cognates: Old Frisian hopia, Middle Low German, Middle Dutch, Dutch hopen; Middle High German hoffen "to hope," which is borrowed from Low German). Some suggest a connection with hop (v.) on the notion of "leaping in expectation" [Klein].
a word of unknown origin
Might I suggest
haven (n.)
late Old English hæfen "haven, port," from Old Norse höfn "haven, harbor" or directly from Proto-Germanic *hafno- (source also of Danish havn, Middle Low German havene, German Hafen), perhaps from PIE root *kap- "to grasp" (source of have) on notion of place that "holds" ships. But compare Old Norse haf, Old English hæf "sea" (see haff). Figurative sense of "refuge," now practically the only sense, is c. 1200.
The every letter, detail, pattern, sight, sound, and scent in the entire universe is a living witness of God and His sure word. People can study a library full of theological works and yet not notice any of the above.
What's out there *should* reduce even the hardest heart to tears.
What is seen cannot be unseen.
