The Stream Beneath the Highway

In 2003, Seoul, South Korea, made a decision that baffled the world. Mayor Lee Myung-bak ordered the demolition of a six-lane elevated highway to uncover the Cheonggyecheon — a stream that had been buried under concrete for over thirty years. Where eighteen thousand cars once thundered daily, engineers uncovered a forgotten trickle of water that most residents never knew existed.

At first, the exposed stream was barely ankle-deep, seeping through decades of urban neglect. But as the concrete was peeled away block by block, the water deepened and widened. Within months, the trickle became a flowing river stretching nearly four miles through downtown Seoul. Native fish returned. Willow trees and wildflowers took root along its banks. Summer temperatures along the corridor dropped nearly four degrees. Over six hundred species of plants, insects, birds, and animals now thrive where nothing but exhaust fumes and asphalt existed before.

This is the vision Ezekiel saw — water trickling from beneath the threshold of the temple, so shallow at first you could wade through it, yet growing deeper and wider with every step until it became a river no one could cross. Wherever that river flowed, the Dead Sea came alive and trees bore fruit in every season.

The Almighty does not begin with a flood. He begins with a trickle — a single prayer, a quiet act of obedience, a small uncovering of what was always there. And everything that water touches lives.