Monday Morning Manna: Lessons from the Rain

According to the Book of Genesis, it once rained for “forty days, and forty nights” (Genesis 7:4). According to the DFW Airport weather bureau, last Thursday was the forty-first day in north Texas without even a trace of rain. But nothing stays the same forever. Just like it eventually stopped raining in Genesis, it started raining in north Texas. Thursday, my temperature gage said it was 92 degrees. By late Friday night it read 38 degrees and my rain gage had recorded more than two inches of rain. You know what they say – “If you don’t like the weather in Texas, just wait . . . .” I’ve even heard that during the flood of Noah’s day, parts of west Texas got a quarter of an inch of rain. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that God “sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). True. Most of my neighbors fall into the “just” category, but my one unjust neighbor got the same two inches of rain overnight. About that unjust neighbor, I feel a bit like Mark Twain, who said, “The rain is famous for falling on the just and unjust alike, but if I had the management of such affairs I would rain softly and sweetly on the just, but if I caught a sample of the unjust outdoors I would drown him.” Lots of Texans have been going to church to pray for rain. Of course, most of them leave their umbrellas at home! Longfellow said, “Thy fate is the common fate of all; into each life some rain must fall,” but he also said “The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.” But, of course, Longfellow didn’t live in Texas. My truck-driver grandfather, who was born in Texas and lived in Texas all of his life, believed that you shouldn’t be angry at the rain, because it wasn’t its fault, since it didn’t know how to fall upwards. Lots of lessons to be learned from the rain.

Dr. Dan Crawford, Senior Professor at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, is the WestCoast Baptist Association’s Spiritual Life & Leadership Mentor. Follow Dan on Twitter @DrDanRC and Facebook www.facebook.com/dan.crawford.