Rain

GOD spoke to Moses: “Speak to the congregation of Israel. Tell them, Be holy because I, GOD, your God, am holy. Leviticus 19:2 (The Message)

After a wet winter, the sudden onslaught of dry weather and high temperatures was surprising. The winter Rye grass in the pasture died back after two weeks of summer temperatures, and patches of dead grass stretch as far as you can see. Irrigated water has to be rationed and doesn’t always reach to the far ends of the pasture. The new Bahia grass has not sprouted. My flower bed by the back door is spindly and brown. I’ve been keeping the orchids misted, but they too, looked like they could use a long cool drink. Yesterday, Andrea and I went horseback riding at Little Manatee State Park. The last time we were there, the horses waded through water over their knees. All our tack and jeans were soaked through by the time we got home. On this trip, the trails were dusty and hot. The deep creeks we normally urge the horses through were just narrow trickles. Oh, how we have needed the rain that has been coming down this afternoon. I rushed my orchids off the porch and out onto the deck so they could drink it up. It left wide puddles in the driveway, and wet horses in the yard. The oaks are dripping, and the birdbath is full. I hope to see a difference in the pasture in a day or so. It’s been dry on this blog, too, because I have had my head buried in Bible commentaries as I prepared for this morning’s Sunday School lesson. Ordinarily, I love to teach and am ready whenever our Sunday School teachers calls and asks me to substitute. This time around, I wasn’t so eager, for the next three lessons focus on a seldom read and difficult to understand book, Leviticus. Leviticus is a record of the laws and ceremonies given by God to Moses at Mount Sinai. It can be pretty dry reading as you go from one description of sacrifice and offerings to another. I despaired of ever being able to make the lesson relevant to our class. Then, I began reading how Leviticus is the most often quoted book in the New Testament and how Jesus, Himself, quoted from it over forty times. I read how God spoke the words to Moses and Moses wrote them down exactly as God said. I talked to a friend who told me that reading Leviticus helped him to decide that there was indeed a God. He is a scientist and the descriptions of cures for disease and regulations for cleansing could not have been known thousands of years ago before modern science, microscopes and technology. He concluded that the words were God breathed and not man made. The theme of Leviticus is the holiness of God and His love for man resulting in atonement, the covering of our sins by His Son’s blood. It speaks of the ability of man to walk in fellowship with God. All concepts even more refreshing than rain on a hot summer day.