It has been HOT in Wallace! Temperatures have been in the upper 90s with a “feels-like” temperature of 103. I know that doesn’t compare with the 128 degrees recorded in Death Valley. I still say I have a right to grumble.
In addition, we went for more than three weeks with no measurable rain at my house. Sprinklers were scattering water in almost every yard in our neighborhood, trying to keep the grass alive until the rains arrived. Corn fields down the road were shriveled up, foretelling a skimpy corn crop this year.
Finally, a thundercloud settled directly over our house and unloaded an inch and a half of rain. This was not a “sizzer-sozzer” rain (a slow soaking rain.) This was a “toad-frog strangler” (meaning it was coming down fast.) It was beautiful! ENan and I sat on the porch and listened to the drops as they splattered on the deck, then listened to the happy tree frogs who were singing in the shower.
You would think that much rain would puddle up here and there, leaving a pool for birds to wet their wings. Didn’t happen. As soon as the rain hit the parched land, it soaked right in. The ditch on the border of my yard showed no evidence of run-off water. It disappeared as quickly as it came. The only evidence that it had rained was the new vitality in my thirsty yard plants and the fresh green in the grass.
The Bible refers to a spiritual thirst. When our souls are parched, we feel lifeless and lethargic. The fruit of the spirit begin to shrivel in us, making kindness, patience and self-control hard to detect.
When the Word of God enters into our hearts and minds, it renews our spirits. Whether we hear the Word in a song or a sermon, whether we read the Word from a book or a screen, even if we simply recall the Word we have stored in our hearts, there comes a season of refreshing.
The prophet Isaiah wrote, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish… so is my Word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty.” (Isaiah 55:10-11)
Let it rain!
-Dr. Jim Baldwin
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