Pastoral Ponderings— It’s Raining Again…
“It’s raining again…”—that’s all I remember of that old song that keeps floating through my head on the abundant puddles from our incessant rain, though I’d rather the more positive “Singin’ in the rain…” be what I’m focusing on. I’ve written about rain and dreary drizzles before—it does seem to be a common theme around here this time of year– and even though our El Nino winter forecasts “warmer” prediction held true, the concurrent “drier” part of that same forecast did not hold water this year, if you will pardon the pun (or not!).
It’s too early in the year for me to focus on the joy of rain bringing new life to my garden, but as I woke up this morning with the sound of rain drops and my septic tank alarm continuing to beep for hours on end for too much water, a different thought sprung to my soggy brain—exoplanets. That’s planets outside our solar system, but more specifically, the ultimate importance of the need for this same liquid water endlessly falling on us, as one of the essential preconditions for any “life as we know it” to exist on any cosmic body (yes, I have strange thoughts in the mornings…).
As much as we complain about rain, it is essential to our lives in so many ways. We don’t tend to appreciate its importance, though, until we get too dry and drought conditions set in. Even the ancients who heard God’s voice to describe creation, in the very first thought of the Bible, told of the existence of water before anything else—“1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.” (Gen. 1: 1-2)
And yet we complain. How’s that for appreciation (says I, in a voice dripping like the rain with sarcasm)? Why is it so much easier to complain than to show appreciation for the wonderous intricacy of God’s plan and creative engineering? That water can be liquid, and thereby able to be a fabulous solvent essential for the foundational processes of life, that it can coexist in all three of its forms in the same environment (solid, liquid gas—haven’t you heard how alarming it is when glaciers are melting?), that it expands in solid form, unlike most things that condense in solid form—also necessary for NOT having totally frozen oceans—are all essential facets of God’s creative genius allowing for life, is nothing less than awesome.
How many other of God’s wonderous miracles and amazing grace come in hidden forms like the rain that we so often complain about? Maybe we should take some time to go out “Singin’ in the rain” about God’s often hidden, but amazing grace, to remind us how important it is to appreciate how great is our God.
Pastor Jim