Due to a water shortage, we are restricted to watering our lawn at home only two mornings a week, and hand watering two evenings a week, two hours at a time. This morning our sprinklers came on. A few hours later, the grass was cut. The lawn looked too parched to survive 90 degree weather until Sunday.
This afternoon at 4:55 P.M. I was outside, hat on, garden hose in hand, ready to spend two hours watering our lawn and shrubs by hand. Many ministry projects needed attention, but due do the restrictions, I had to water.
At 5:00 P.M. as the hose was turned on, I noticed the air was a bit cooler than minutes before. Then, without warning, a torrential rain began. I got soaked before I could turn off the hose and head for the back porch.
Isn't God good? He knew I did not have two hours to spare, holding a hose, so He sent rain. I sat on the back porch, drying out and watching it rain. Did God send that sudden storm for me or for my neighbor? I do not know, but I am thankful He did.
As I sat in the swing, watching every square inch of our lawn get soaked by the Lord, I thought how much more effective that ran was than my efforts with a hose would have been, especially when half our town was watering at the same time.
I am guilty, and perhaps you are also, of attacking God-sized problems under our own power. To be honest, I had assumed since the weather guy said no rain today, there was no reason to pray for rain. How much more God can do for the droughts in life that we all experience than we can do with a garden hose, doing our best, but limited by our human ability.
It is now 5:45 P.M. and the sun is out again. Except for the puddles, and my drying shirt, there is no evidence of that welcomed downpour. That's the way it is in marriages also. When things dry up, we get out the garden hose, when God is waiting to do something so much greater. Given a few years, the evidence of what you are enduring today will be all dried up, just like a Florida rainstorm. If you stand strong, the sun will shine again.
God Bless,
Bob Steinkamp
