God sure knows how to water a lawn

I stood out on the front porch Monday, reveling in the rainfall.

Yes, I know that those immediately outside of McCook got nary a drop, while we enjoyed a full hour of precious, heaven-sent moisture soaking into the ground and rushing down the city streets.

It was glorious. It was all I could do to keep from running out from under the cover of the porch to dance in the wind and the rain.

Danny said it best when he remarked, "God sure knows how to water a lawn."

There'll be no mention here of atmospheric phenomenon coming together to create such a welcome respite from a dry July. Mother Nature gets no credit (as there is no such entity) and the local meteorologists, whether right or wrong, only report and prognosticate. They do not produce. They do not create. They deserve our thanks when they forewarn us of impending danger, but they do not deserve the praise.

The praise belongs to the One who made heaven and earth, and who sends the rain from that heaven to replenish, refresh and renew that earth. The rainbows that followed our late afternoon storm is cause for further praise, as God painted the sky with his promise, renewed.

Why is it seemingly so much easier to give the weatherman credit, or to assign a proper name to the natural order God created, thereby attributing natural phenomenon to that invented personage? We name God in other moments of our day with little or no thought, uttering his name as a curse, as an exclamation, or even as an afterthought. So it can't be that we are afraid to say the word. Perhaps we are afraid to give him sovereignty. Because, if he is sovereign here, he must be sovereign there -- and we simply don't trust his sovereignty.

It's a favorite argument of the agnostic or the atheist. If God is, then why is there suffering?

If God is, then why do evil men flourish while good men perish?

If God is, then why ____? and many of us could fill in the blank, we've heard the arguments often enough to know the drill.

Then there are those who have fallen for the God as Santa Claus deception. They ask, If God is then why doesn't the one I love, love me?

If God is, then why doesn't he let me win the lottery and thereby solve all of my problems?

If God is, then why didn't I get the job, the house, the spouse, the children, I wanted?

Again, many of us could fill in the blanks, we've heard these arguments often enough as well.

Perhaps that's part of the problem. We've heard the arguments, and we don't have the definitive, satisfactory answer. Or we think we don't. Therefore, we avoid the conversation altogether.

For instance, in giving credit to God for the blessing of the rain that fell Monday, I open myself up to the questions of those who will ask, "Then God is also responsible for withholding the rain?"

If he is responsible for sending it, then, yes, he is responsible for withholding it.

Why would he withhold it? becomes the next query. He knows we have need of it for our crops, for our reservoirs. He knows that water sustains our lives in so many ways. Why then, would he withhold that which is so needed?

Though there are many explanations found in Scripture, chief being that drought was a sign that God was displeased, once again it boils down to his sovereignty.

Just as we must one day humbly accept that the wisest course God could have taken in our lives was to withhold our winning of the lottery, we must also humbly accept that in his wisdom, God sometimes withholds the rain.

Perhaps it is to bring about an expression of repentance. Perhaps it is to bring about a desperation within us that we have no choice but to turn to God or die. Sometimes he accomplishes that through an agricultural drought. Sometimes he causes it through a drought of spirit, a drought of joy, a drought of love, and a flood of dismay, a flood of depression, or a flood of loneliness.

Do we yet not see? Do we yet not hear? God loves us. And he desires a relationship with us. And not just a passing acquaintance. Certainly not from a distorted distant view. God desires a deep, meaningful, personal relationship. A relationship built on trust and commitment.

And what does God promise in response to this relationship? What does he bring to the table? What's in it for me? asks the cynic, the doubter, the proud.

Only our rescue from our most arch enemies, sin and death.

Only healing of our acute sufferings brought about by the sin in our lives.

Only a home in the place he has prepared for us.

Do not be afraid to humble yourself before God, giving him sovereignty over his creation and over your heart. He has shown himself to be willing to do whatever it takes to bring you home.

"Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime; it is the Lord who makes the storm clouds. He gives showers of rain to men, and plants of the field to everyone." Zechariah 10:1 (NIV)

-- Dawn Cribbs and her husband were doubly grateful for the rain Monday as they had just expended 12 man hours (and that just since Saturday) pulling stubborn weeds from their newly sown buffalo grass lawn.