The Measure of God’s Blessings
Pretty exciting times at the Harrill homestead this week! Whereas we had received maybe an inch of rain from mid-June to September 4th in total, Monday we measured 2 ¾ inches in a nice, steady, soaking rain. My wife and I have strained the well this summer watering trees, flowers, and vegetables, all in the attempt to keep some things alive. I honestly can’t remember such a dry summer. We’ve seen close to 90% probabilities of rain three days out fizzle to absolutely nothing on the expected day all summer long. Anyone in the Northeast knows what we are talking about.
Weather always makes me think. Consider – we’ve watched the radar as a storm cell barreled down on us only to fall apart right before it reached us. We’ve seen others veer off to the south or north in accurate examples of “scattered storms.” But the most infuriating one we saw was a three county-long line of a storm far from being anything like scattered literally falling to pieces a mile to the west and then reforming about a mile to the east with nothing we could do about it. Our rain gauge got a little damp. Rain gauge. Hmmmm….
You see, we know God controls the weather as He sends His rain on the just and unjust. Now, we’ve prayed for rain. And it seems like the rain and the gauge is like some sort of all-to-accurate metaphor. And so, as I have contemplated my parched earth, my attitude towards the reasons for my parched earth, and…. Well, anyway, I wonder – are we in the habit of putting out rain gauges to measure God’s blessings in our lives? I don’t mean like in the old song “Count Your Blessings,” but more like, “Okay God, it’s time for me to do a cost-benefit analysis of my life with you.” Or, “I’m looking for some very specific things from you and I’m going to see if you come through for me in the ways I expect.” And it strikes me (as I trip over the gas can I haven’t had to fill for my mower all summer) – any kind of ingratitude I exhibit for anything God does means I’m looking at the wrong things in the wrong places.
Didn’t Jesus say His blessings are immeasurable? Are not God’s greatest gifts free? Doesn’t our ingratitude stem mostly from our wrong-headed transactional ways of thinking or our inability to see what God is doing in our lives? Really, is there anything I’ve done at all that is worth all God has done for me? We all know the answers to these questions, but we sure tend to forget.
So. Thank you God for the rain – but thank you more for the reminders this summer of the true blessings we have in you!
These are the passages I had in mind when writing this….
Did you catch the hidden blessing in the drought??
I really liked this one dad!