Dryness
We had two-tenths of an inch of measurable rain in September. October, the area’s driest month, remained that way for so long. For six long hot weeks, the weatherman sounded like a broken record and signs posted at the fire department and the district forestry office about the high fire danger reinforced the desperate feelings of farmers and cattlemen. Hundreds of acres of rotting timber left from last year’s storm lay waiting for rain to soften the ground and wet it so that it could be completely cleared and renewed with the winter planting. Dust on dirt roads fogged so high when vehicles passed, visibility was difficult to dangerous. The deer and smaller critters got bolder in their hunt for water appearing in the daytime where they wouldn’t normally show up. Our pond lay at its lowest level in ten years, and the grass in our yard crunched like shredded wheat. No amount of water pumped from wells in the ground sustained the landscape. Then, the rain came. What could have been trouble in the form of a tropical depression, became hours of slow drizzle to soak in and restore the parched landscape. I sang and worshiped at my window “…healing rain is falling down.” After this event, it seems the dry cycle broke and intermittent showers continue. In just a few days, the pasture land grew green again and the dust washed away. What a blessing!
As a believer, I become dry like that. God is always there, but sometimes I’m not listening. Daily calamities eat up my time with God. Sometimes during my scheduled devotions, I just don’t hear Him well. My spiritual ears need cleaning out. I do not slow down long enough “by the still waters” where He tries to lead me to drink and rest. I must be desperate enough like the little deer that slips to the pond in broad daylight to drink. Dehydration in the natural body is very dangerous. Do I push beyond my limits without the life-giving water from the well of life? That’s asking for trouble. Only God satisfies.
Isaiah 55 says,
“Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters,
and you who have no money, come buy and eat!
Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread?
And your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me and delight in what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
Listen that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
My faithful love promised to David” (Isaiah 55:1-3NIV).
Lord, I want to drink from the fountain that satisfies. I need more than what this life provides. Jesus, you told the woman at the well that the water you give would last forever. I need you.
You hit on a great point, Luwana; we often don’t slow down enough to hear Him. I need to slow down more, because I seem to keep going and going…
So true Luwana. We all hit dry spells but thankfully God’s well never runs dry. Thank you for filling in for me. I appreciate you!
Thank you, Luwana, for this beautiful reminder of God’s invitation to Come when we’re thirsty, barren, and spiritually dry.