It’s hot and dry out there, but, then again, it is summer in East Texas.
My paternal grandfather used to say, “We will get rain when we need it.” Some people seem to think that is an absurd assertion, and that we often need rain before we get it. Granddaddy died when I was a little boy, so his climate theology was mediated to be me by others. I never had the chance to ask him what he meant. However, I have thought about it a lot and here is what I think he meant.
Granddaddy was not some rich man living on gilded streets. He was a farmer whose life and livelihood depended on the sun and rain in proper proportions at the suitable seasons. Perhaps he thought it is not so much the condition of the soil but the condition of our heart that determines what we receive. And, ultimately, that it is not the opinion of man but the will of God that determines what we need. He who hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, who maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and who sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust is the determiner of need.
Sometimes what we want is not what we need, as any good parent knows.
2 comments:
Amen! I would have enjoyed getting to know your granddaddy! Weather for those who work the land and/or have animals is a major influence. I think your grandfather was living by faith, confident that when needed, it will come. It is hard - so hard - to admit that we may actually need drought and poverty to make us into what God wants.
E. T. Chapman
Thanks. Living by faith is real, required, but can be difficult. In the end, much better than walking by sight. The farm is a place where theory gives was to practice. God can do that elsewhere as well -- like when you profess to believe that God has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, then God sends the whirlwind right over your house!
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