The Blessing of Rain

"He gives rain on the earth, and sends water on the fields."  Job 5:10

It's raining.  Really raining.  Not just a spotty little shower, but a soaking, splashing, dripping, puddling rain. 

We needed it badly.  The pasture grass was getting crunchy.  The leaves on fruit trees and brambles were starting to curl.  The garden was drying up.  I had tried several times to start lettuce, broccoli and cabbage, but despite watering every day they just either didn't sprout at all or wilted as soon as they appeared.

And it's cooler too. Not even 70 degrees as I write this from our front porch.   

I know the naturalistic explanation for the rain:  Lee has churned us up some moisture from the gulf.  A lot of moisture.  I know, too, that the west needed this rain even more than we and didn't get much of it.  I am sure there are faithful people in Texas praying for rain that hasn't come.  I don't try to explain that. But I do pray for those people.

 What I can tell you is that every day for the last several weeks, as my family came to a dinner of summer's bounty, we prayed for rain. Rain means a lot to people who grow food and draw their water from a spring.   So for me, the rain is an answer to prayer.  It is mercy and benediction.  I see in scripture that the sending and witholding of it sit squarely in God's sovereignty.  I am reminded how dependent we are, all of us, on His sending it. How dependent we are on Him for everything.

Thank you, Lord, for this beautiful rain.