The River in Lehi's dream- even in filthiness, a mercy from God

I'm reading Lehi's dream, and every time I read this passage, the river of water grabs my attention. This time, I realized a few new things. One, imagine the power of this symbol to a nomadic group of people, or a family traveling in the wilderness. A fountain of pure water springing forth. This is something you would search for, build your life around. It would provide your livelihood in watering your crops, your cattle, and keeping your family clean, fed, and healthy. A fountain of water is absolutely necessary to life and livelihood. Nephi tells us that this water- the fountain of living waters- are a representation of the love of God as well as the tree of life. (1 Nephi 11: 25.) The love of God that is whiter than the driven snow and most desireable above all things. One thing we learn is that the filthy river is the depths of Hell. The scriptures make no correlation between the fountain of living waters and the filthy river, but I like to take this knowledge from it: Satan takes the truth of God and his love and turns everything good to his purposes. Perhaps this filthy river is a small offshoot of the fountain of living waters. After all, it is still water. This stream separates the rod of iron from the large and spacious building. And mercifully, we begin our journey on the same side of the river as the rod of iron and the tree of life. If you notice, those who take of the fruit and then look around, ashamed, are looking across the river at the great and spacious building. I think there are many, and I have felt it myself, who look across at that building, and see those people in fine clothes who look so happy, and wish they could be there. But notice that it is not easy to reach the great and spacious building. In fact, it could be simply an illusion that Satan fills with images of happy people, and so many spend their lives trying to reach it, but drown in the depths of the river instead. That said, the scriptures do state that many entered the building.
There is a direct polarization of two destinations: the tree of life, and the large and spacious building. See 1 Nephi 15:30 that says, "And I said unto them that our father also saw that the justice of God did also divide the wicked from the righteous." This time, as I read, I realized that the river, which may even have as its fountain the love of God, must be crossed in order to reach that foundationless building into which many enter. And it is not easy to arrive. Think of how it feels to first walk into a cold stream. You are dry and each step takes effort until you immerse yourself to a certain point at which you forget the cold river and become accustomed to it. I know that it is like this when we are going away from the Love of God striving for that building made of pride. Mercifully, actions that lead us away from the correct path bring us pain. There are feelings that make us aware of what we are doing, and only if we ignore them, can we get deep enough into the river to get across or drown. That is the remnant of the Love of God that remains of this filthy river- that we know when we are entering it. We have been given a spirit that is sensitive to light and dark, clean and dirty. For someone who is trying to do his/her best, that's a real relief.
As I was looking for a picture for this post, I found an article that I really enjoyed about Lehi's and Nephi's dreams: http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/jbms/?vol=2&num=2&id=30. It makes some interesting observations at the end about the Garden of Eden and the temple.