Back to Basics

Then the Lord addressed Job out of the storm and said:
Who has laid out a channel for the downpour and for the thunderstorm a path
To bring rain to no man’s land, the unpeopled wilderness;
To enrich the waste and desolate ground till the desert blooms with verdure? (Job 38:1, 25-27)

During the summer of 1994, my family and I spent our summer vacation on a road trip of the Southwest. We camped at the Grand Canyon, and visited Mesa Verde, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. My husband’s younger sister was living in Colorado Springs at the time and before heading north to visit her family, we spent a couple of days with a college friend who lived just north of the New Mexico border in Trinidad, Colorado. During that time, we stayed in a campground just on the New Mexico side, in a town called Raton.

I remember sitting on the porch of our KOA “Kamping Kabin” watching a thunderstorm gather up. Throughout the afternoon, the sky turned incredible shades of aquamarine and pink and orange as the moisture moved through the clouds. As the storm gained momentum, you could see spouts of rain coming down across the miles of landscape like giant colored worms dancing. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. I watched that scene, mesmerized, for a good two hours or more.

I’m sure that a climate scientist or good meteorologist could explain all the details of what was happening, but for that short space of time, all I could do was wonder at the mind of a God who could create something so amazing. All the miracles of technology that we see around us every day are somehow trumped by Mother Nature doing what she was created to do.

Some people get upset when things like the weather get in the way of doing the things they want or need to do. Others feel cheated when, for example, a baseball game gets rained out. Could it be that such inconveniences are God’s way of getting us to pay attention, to slow down a little and bring us back to “home base”?

In the book of the prophet Isaiah, the Lord says that His word is like the rain, achieving the end for which [He] sent it (Is. 55:11). Every day – if we take the time to notice – God is calling us through His creation to allow ourselves to be renewed and re-formed into the people He intended us to be from the beginning. With every gasp of wonder, the Lord reclaims us for Himself and reminds us: I, the Lord, am your God…You shall not have other gods besides Me (Ex. 20:2-3).

Prayer Request: That during these days of summer vacation, we will take time to allow ourselves to be refreshed and renewed by our God.

Prayer: O Lord, our God, we thank You for the wonders of nature that You have created. Help us to slow down, to take time to be amazed and awed by all You do. Renew us and refresh us, that we may become like the rain which goes forth from the heavens to fulfill the purpose for which You sent it. We make this prayer through Christ, our Lord. Amen.