It has been a borderline drought here in Nebraska for several years now.
We have both family and friends that depend on the earth for supplying a means for living. My heritage involves that very experience.
In this small village we live in, Water is a very precious substance. We are not unique.
We might vary in our needs though…..
While we truly enjoy raising vegetables in our gardens for food, we really enjoy more, the process of growth, development and maturity of the end product. That is perhaps the overlay of our need to plant. Perhaps further is the need for display…. for ourselves and for others, the beautiful floral gardens we have been guided to plant.
This year has been no exception in this decade, providing a challenge for growth, for sustaining as well as providing that end product…….. the fruit or the blossom.
The year, like most in Nebraska opened with a promise of necessary moisture, then demising to many forecasts of moisture that never develop. Storm clouds develop, flexing their muscle with lightning and thunder…….gently traveling past our area with no ………. nadda……. drop of water……again.
Recently, as I was bent over a plant in the gardens, pulling a small weed; I found myself talking to the weed. “I know that everyone needs to be somewhere … but you just can’t be here”, pulling it to an early demise. “I need to direct what little moisture we have for the blossom” . Oh boy, talking to a weed, they’ll surely come to take me away , ha ha hee hee, ha ha.
I found myself also remembering my heritage as a farmer. I thought “wow, here I am apologizing to a weed while my parents and other ancestors experienced an actual drought of the 1930’s.” Each winter they had dreams…. each spring they planted those dreams.. …. each summer they watched their dreams bend over and succumb to the extreme heat and lack of moisture. Each winter they dreamed again….. first year, second year, third year, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh………………….
Each year, they planted, they watched it fail, they survived, they Prayed again for a newborn life in a new year. Think about that one for a bit………. might be also called eternity. Days grew longer and longer and more challenging. They watched their “fruits” tumble and fall to a dried up end. Our lives are so easy…….
I Prayed……… “Lord, if this is our task you assigned, please show us strength; we are so tired.” ”If it be your will today, we need some help. We need some rain. We need some assurance.”
Almost as I uttered Amen, gentle rains began to fall. One inch, two inches, three inches and four; all timely and needed. The creek that I used to water our amenities from, once dry, began to flow again. Thought dead, flowers and lawn, tomatoes and peppers came back with fury. While trusting,……………. I am so amazed at the Power of Prayer once again!
Tonight as I lay a few feet from our bedroom window, listening to the gentle raindrops in the middle of the night, addressing the roof, the gutters, the lawn and flowers, the vegetable gardens again, I look at them as Amenities to our lives. I Pray again…… “Lord, as usual, I asked, You Listened, You Provided through Your Will”, “ We needed rain, You provided” “Now, since you have abundantly addressed our needs, we want to share with others who are also so in need of the wealth you provide”, “We want to share with others who are in need of both your ‘moisture’ and your spirit”……… If nothing else in this life here on earth, I have found the meaning of when you need, just ask….
No longer do I need to Pray Through a Parched Eye!
Amen
Rich – August 17, 2006