Drought to Drenching

Wah! One of my two fruits fell down in the storm last night. The formerly fruitless fruit tree produced two little fruits, and now there is but one. I feel like Jonah mourning over his lost plant. For weeks I checked the fruit tree in vain, then one evening great joy as I saw the two fruits, now I am sad over something I had no part in producing or control over the ripening. Last night we got a drenching, breaking up a couple of weeks of drought. As in many years, the total rainfall does not tell the whole story. We might go weeks without rain, a drought, then one night we get a drenching. Creek beds overflow, street gutters wash over and flow into basements, channels appear in what was flat, dry ground, and everything is dampish for a little while. But the morning after the rainstorm does not tell the whole story either.

I don't want to call God's creation broken, but there is a stain of sin that sets over the world. Mostly it sits on us. We don't build homes and gardens that adjust to the sporadic rainfall. We don't build streets that absorb the water and store it for the dry times. We build roofs to shed the water, but then channel it just kind of out into the lawn when it could be used better. We tend to complain first about some condition before we attempt to work with it. We tend to pray to the One who can do the most only after we have exhausted our whining. Yes, such cursed and fallen creatures as we probably need a good drenching every now and then.

Praise God for His everlasting love! We need that love to help us, protect us, and comfort us in a world that is a difficult place to live right now. God's blessing, though, overcomes the conditions of the world. The perfect Earth has not arrived yet, and we in our state of imperfection could not fully appreciate it at this time. Instead, we live in faith, especially that faith that says this is all working out through Christ for our good.

Enjoy the day!
Bucky