Trailing Bellflower

This is campanula poscharskyana or trailing bellflower. It’s a common sight in English gardens and woodlands and is not especially remarkable but for its cheerful colour and proclivity for growing in walls. One of the reasons for growing well above the ground is its aversion to stagnant water, to which its roots are particularly prone to asphyxiation. To some degree or another, most life forms require water to flow and move. My tropical fish must have oxygen in their tank which is obtained by ripples on the surface. A stagnant pool is a breeding ground for all sorts of bacteria and harmful diseases. When the Lord Jesus described Himself as the water of life, He was not picturing a still pool, but a lively flow:

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life (John 4)

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (John 7)

In Exodus 17, Moses struck the rock and water freely streamed, unlike the motionless, bitter waters of Marah which needed sweetening. The obvious exception to this is Psalm 23, in which David writes:

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

The imagery here is of a gentle pools and tranquil oases, a contrast to the billowing seas, of which we read in Psalm 65. Water can be a damaging force if it moves too quickly; if it moves not at all, it stagnates and breeds danger. The water of life, in contrast, is lively, animated and sparkling; it heals, strengthens and blesses. He who drinks therefrom will neither imbibe illness, nor be swept away by its wonderful power.