Where the River Goes: Meditations on the Return of Jesus Christ in Story and Song

'Oh, Lord, crush the stinging serpent who poisons all our joys.'


In this collection of songs and essays, lament and love, sorrow and hope ring out even at the graveside, as God’s people ask how long until God’s dream for this world finally comes true? Until death, the last enemy, is entirely removed, and our long pilgrimage of faith finally brings us to the joy set before us—the face of Jesus? For God’s dream has not, in fact, died, and there truly is a love that shall outlast every death.


What others are saying...

Where the River Goes is the soul-nourishing finale of The Well Trilogy. If this book is read as its format suggests—letting each writer’s voice speak, listening to the songs as their lyrics appear—the attentive reader will find her understanding of Christ’s love being built out image by image and word by word until all threads converge in the epilogue, where the last line sings.

—Amy Baik Lee, author of This Homeward Ache


Where the River Goes is flush with ideas, experiences, and stories from writers drawn in by Matthew’s music and his remarkable artistic hospitality.

—Pete Peterson, Publisher, Rabbit Room Press, Artistic Director, Rabbit Room Theatre


Plumbing his own sorrow and dramatic encounter with God, Matthew Clark mixes media to weave an expansive, inclusive, artful tapestry of the Christian life. There is so, so much beauty here to comfort, heal and inspire the reader. Perhaps my favorite line (of many!): “God was always dreaming of a wedding.”

—Esther Lightcap Meek, author of Doorway to Artistry and The Mother’s Smile 


There’s a mouth open wide in impossible song, singing, ‘Everything will live where the river goes.’