I joked with our helper about the predicted rain. Soon after - a cloudburst let loose on Springdale. According to the rain gauge in the street, which formed a large lake immediately, we had a real soaker. In fact, I tried to enjoy the storm outside on the covered porch. The storm changed from a steady drizzle, to a heavy rain, to Niagara Falls. I retreated indoors.
Rain cleans off all the vegetation at once, from the trees to the weeds to the flowers and vegetables. As the author of Plants Are Like People observed, they love a good bath too.
The rain and lightning bring down tons of usable (fixed) nitrogen for immediate use by all the plants. A brown lawn will turn green during the rain. Our lush growth of crabgrass became even denser. Nitrogen compounds inevitably bring growth to all plants and secondarily to us, since we need those crops to live and we eat the animals that graze on vegetation.
When our bodies dehydrate, cellular activity comes to a halt, since it depends on the osmotic movement of mineral salts, among other things. When the soil is dry, soil creatures slow down or cease functioning. The rain gives them life.
Living soil becomes more lively from a rainstorm, because the mass of eggs, larvae, insects, bacteria, and earthworms beneath enjoy the rain deep in the soil, thanks to the previous work of these creatures. Soil creatures cooperate in this gentle movement of soil, creating space and letting rain penetrate the lower levels.
Unlettered gardeners scrape the soil surface bare, so the rain evaporates faster. But God mulches His own plants, letting the dead leaves and flowers cover the soil
- to hold in moisture,
- prevent wind erosion,
- and feed the soil creatures below.
The Creation gardener allows the divine purpose to increase and multiply at each level. A rainstorm will not do much for poorly maintained roses, except to let them live another month. If the roses are pruned and mulched, they will bloom in profusion after a storm - washed clean of dust and insects, fed down to their roots, gently aerated and manured by earthworms.
Isaiah 55:8 KJV For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
David Valleskey pretended to know something about Paul the Missionary, but the Apostle wrote this:
1 Corinthians 3:6 (KJV)
I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
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| "Of sin - because they do not believe on Me." |
The rainstorms reward the believer who understands that the Word always accomplishes His will and never returns voice. Moreover, the Word prospers His work.
The Word widens the gap between believers and apostates. Believers are comforted, even though though the apostates punish them and drive them away. The apostates are taught too - in a sense. They become more blinded and hardened by their encounter with the divine Word. The more they play with words and pretend to be believers, the more God makes them wander in a daze, with their disciples trailing behind them.
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| "The district is peaceful again, Lord Vader." |