Rain, Rain, Don’t Go Away

As I drove to Ingleside Sunday morning, I saw water standing in ditches on the sides of the road. What a beautiful sight. A long period of drought made such a sight impossible before yesterday. One can only hope that the precipitation picture will improve, although the experts say that 2012 will be another drought year for Texas.
Where is Elijah when we need him? He announced a three-year drought to King Ahab, and it came to pass just as he had warned. After the contest with the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel, God sent the promised rain. When the time was right, “Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. ‘Go and look toward the sea,’ he told his servant. And he went up and looked. ‘There is nothing there,’ he said. Seven times Elijah said, ‘Go back.’ The seventh time the servant reported, ‘A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.’ So Elijah said, ‘Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’ Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain started falling..” (I Kings 18:42-46 NIV).
The current wisdom states that “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” Elijah disproves that; he not only talked about the weather–he did something about it.
We, on the other hand, must live by conventional wisdom; we can talk about the drought, and be thankful for recent rain, but the outcome is all in God’s hands. Jesus put it this way: “He (God) causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45 NIV).
Joseph advised Pharaoh to take advantage of the bumper crops of great harvests, to store the crops and distribute them during the years of drought. In other words, he advised the king to have a plan and then to administer it. Perhaps there is a lesson there for us. We know that we have cycles of good weather on the one hand and drought on the other. Even in our complex society, it might be possible to take actions that would prepare us for the lean years. If the people of Egypt could do it thousands of years ago, perhaps we in the technological world of the 21st Century can learn from them.
Anyway, praise the Lord for the recent rains. We really needed them.