God's Rain

(Written 3-28-07)

As I look out my living room window this morning, I see a huge dark spot. It almost looks like a fire has burned a circle into our yard. In reality, though, it is fresh dirt where we filled in a hole in our back yard. Evidently, the previous owners had a swimming pool or something of that sort that stayed in that one spot for an extended period of time. When the pool was moved, it left a hole eight to ten feet in diameter and a good six inches deep. Because our soil is thick and heavy, it doesn’t drain well. Every time it rained, that hole filled up and took days to drain. Stagnant water breeds mosquitoes, and we did not want to be a West Nile Virus breeding ground! So, we filled in the hole and scattered grass seed over it. Every day we have watered the hole when we’ve watered our trees. Every day we’ve watched to see just a few sprouts of grass here and there poke their little heads through the soil. Then, yesterday afternoon and through the night we received spatterings of rain. Not much rain. Just a small shower here or there. But, for the first time since we filled our hole and planted our grass, God chose to take a turn watering our yard. The results were amazing. Overnight the amount of grass in our hole seemed to double! The clover and grass in the rest of the yard seemed to be growing almost before our eyes! How can it be that one little rain could be so much more effective than our daily watering?

In Exodus 20:19, we read about the children of Israel begging Moses to be their mediator. They were afraid of the Lord because of the mighty thundering and darkness on the mount. They asked Moses to tell them what the Lord said because they believed that they would die if they heard the fearful voice of the Lord themselves. In the times before Christ, God’s people did indeed need a mediator. For this reason, God equipped Moses, Joshua, Samuel, and many other prophets, judges, and rulers to inform His people of His will.

This all changed, however, with Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. The victory of our Savior allowed us to approach God directly, and a whole new world opened up to the children of God! Now we can listen directly to the voice of God without fear of death. His Word brings us life, not death! Of course, He still speaks to us through other people, and for that I am thankful. I have been so blessed by many of His messengers who have shared with me messages He has given them. Besides, if I didn’t believe He still speaks through His children, I wouldn’t be writing! But, let me present a thought brought to me by the growing of our grass.

Just as we watered and watered the grass with our hose, we as believers take in godly wisdom from many, many sources. We hear sermons, attend Sunday school, participate in conferences, and read devotionals and books. We learn so much and we grow at a wonderful, steady, and productive rate. But, then we begin to learn to glean for ourselves the incredible nuggets of truth from Scripture. Like a precious spring rainshower on the grass of our lives, we read a verse or passage and feel the Word pour directly into our hearts. We have heard directly from the Lord! Suddenly we take a leap of growth and blossom as much with that one direct word from our precious Savior as we have blossomed with weeks and months of sermons and books. What a thrill to hear His voice!

Lord, may we be diligent to listen to Your servants who bring us Your truth as You have presented it to them. Thank You for sending them to us to keep us watered on a regular basis. But, Lord, may we never rely simply on them. May we always remember that our primary nourishment comes from You! Just as the flowers and trees of the earth cannot truly survive unless You pour down Your rain upon the earth, so we know that we cannot survive unless we hear directly from You! Your Word spoken from Your mouth to our individual hearts is our primary nourishment. May we never fully rely on others to feed and water us when we know we can receive our nourishment directly from Your hand.