What Would We Do without Rain?

Sometimes I cannot help being a grouch. I guess it is what happens to a person when they get older. They get older, grouchier and grumpier. With that in mind, I guess I qualify for being an old geezer.

The past several weeks I was grouchy about the weather. What else is there to grouch about these days? I would grouch about politics, but it is a world of craziness. I suppose good people go to Washington, DC, but they don’t stay good for long. Therefore, I have given up grouching about politics and politicians and such.

One of the good things about grouching about the weather is it there is nothing you can do about the weather. You may not like the weather. You may want a different kind of weather. However, there is actually nothing you can do to change the weather on the outside.

Through the years, I have realized that if I wanted to bet on which day it was going to rain, it would be the day I wash my car. When I am out there washing my car, Mother Nature is looking down on me grinning one of her sarcastic grins, knowing that she is going to send rain my way that day.

I still like grouching about the weather. After all, you need to grouch about something and I would rather grouch about something that I had nothing at all to do with then something I could change.

The other day I started downtown and the sky was bright and sunny. Twenty minutes later, it was raining cats and dogs.

Three weeks ago at the church, we bought a brand-new lawnmower. We have not been able to use it yet so we do not know if it really works or not. The rain has come down for three weeks.

Thinking about the rain condition, we are in I often wonder about how Noah felt about the rain in his day. He built an ark and there was not a drop of rain to be found. He told everybody that it was going to rain; nobody had ever seen rain before and did not know what he was talking about.

For 100 years, Noah was building his ark and telling people that the rain was coming soon. They laughed at him and probably he was the first person called The Rainman. They were not laughing so much when the rain actually did come.

I was sitting in my easy chair, looking out the glass door, watching it rain and rain and rain. Just when I thought it was about over, there was a crackling thunder and the rain came down worse than before.

“When will this rain,” I said in a very disgusted attitude, “stop so I can go outside?”

My wife looked at me and said, “What do you want to go outside for?”

Well, she had me there. Because there is nothing for me to do outside and furthermore, I am not permitted to do any repair work on the outside by decree of the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage. No matter how bad something is broken, five minutes with me and it will be worse than before. That is, according to her estimation.

I tried to keep quiet for a few more minutes, but lo and behold, out came more grouchiness. I guess a person my age has a lot of grouchy to come out, but there is never an appropriate time.

“I’m getting so tired,” I said, “of this rain coming and not stopping. When will the rain ever stop? I can do without all this rain.”

At that moment, my wife came into the room where I was sitting and stared at me for a few moments. She has those stares that penetrate directly to the soul and back out again. I was afraid to say anything at that time.

Then, putting both hands on her hips, she said, “What would we do without rain?”

I did not know if that was a rhetorical question or if she was grilling me about our situation. She then turned around and went back to the kitchen to her work.

It did, however, caused me to think a little bit about that. Where in the world would we be if it did not rain when it was supposed to rain?

If it were not for rain, we would not have the beautiful land we now have. The farmer’s fields would not grow. The gardener’s vegetables would not grow. The florist’s would lose all their flowers.

Thinking along these lines, I came to a conclusion. It is important in this world for it to rain. Rain has a way of making everything grow and be healthy.

David saw rain in a very different matter. “Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God: Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains” (Psalm 147:7-8).

A rainy day is somewhat like life. You cannot make it rain and you cannot make it stop. However, every rain has a positive effect on the world around us.

I cannot control the rain, neither can I control much of the elements in my life but I can have a thankful heart like David, knowing that after the rain the flowers will bloom.