Thank God For The Rain

Well, one day last week Mother Nature changed up her routine from hot and dry to cool and wet, for a few hours. Yes, that was rain! Though it turned out to be just a tease of a couple of inches of precipitation, lawns, trees and flower gardens greedily drank it up and within 24 hours began to show their glory in living color once again. Amazing what a little rain water can do for foliage and attitude alike. If you’re like me, I get tired of the same weather day after day and especially when it’s hot and dry what seems like forever. This “Diablo Summer”, as one local weatherman has called it, has and continues to cause a lot of problems across the countryside. Farming and ranching has suffered greatly and the end is no where in sight. Fires have consumed the vegetation on thousands of acres of land and cause hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to homes and other property. Dry, shifting, settling earth, is causing building foundation problems and is evident on the front page of our local newspaper this past week. It seems the weather has affected our 127 year-old county courthouse. A big ole crack on the outside and some noticeable problems on the inside of one corner of the building have brought about an evacuation of a portion of the courthouse until a high powered engineering firm can determine what’s going wrong and what to do about it. Originally built to standards that would enable it stand forever, I guess the warranty just ran out. I suppose a few million dollars down the road we’ll get a new warranty.
One night a wife found her husband standing over their baby’s crib. Silently, she watched him for a few minutes. As he stood looking down at the sleeping infant, she saw on his face a mixture of emotions. Touched by his unusual display, she slipped her arms around her husband, “A penny for your thoughts,” she whispered. “It’s amazing,” he replied. “I just can’t see how anybody can make a crib like this for only $64.95.
[Isaiah 51: 4-8] I am encouraged when I pull my local newspaper from the mailbox and read at the top of the front page, “Thank God for the rain”. There are some, and in increasing numbers I might add, that say it’s all in the cycle of nature that we do or don’t get rain and eventually it has to start raining again. The God of the Bible is a powerful God and if he sees it a fit time to cut off the rain from the country, that’s what’s gong to happen. If the lack of rain, or an abundance of tornadoes, or numerous floods, or earthquakes is what it takes to bring us to our knees in prayer and repentance then so be it. Look at it this way. If you continually crash automobiles, will your insurance company continue replacing them? If you constantly fail courses of learning will you graduate from high school or college? No! In fact somebody is going to come down hard on you for your actions and deny you the benefits you seek. If we continually sin and disobey the Creator, if we constantly insist on having our own way, how can we expect to reap the benefits promised by God? No foundation on this earth is strong enough to withstand time. All earthly things will crumble and disappear in time so why invest your life totally in earthly pleasures? I’m convinced of life after death and for my need to get to know God and obey him and his righteous ways. Jesus, the bedrock of truth and righteousness, is everlasting and the only foundation worthy for building an everlasting life upon. No matter what happens in this life I am already devoted to the next life, eternal life with my God who loves me and chastises me.