I was watering the drying hostas, coconut daisies, Poke, and Joe Pye. The phone rang and I had an enjoyable conversation with a member. That lasted about an hour, so it was time to turn off the sprinkler. I looked out - "What broke? Where is this coming from?" The rain came rushing down in a cloudburst that stayed in place. To turn off the spigot, a few feet from the back door, I had to get soaked, but that was a great feeling of relief.
Tons of water were coming down, slackening a bit, then pouring down even harder on wilted plants, dry grass. Even the weeds look pitiful, but they were coming to life and greening up.
I got on dry clothes, then looked out the front. Was the rain-barrel filling up? My brain said, "Of course!" but I had to check. Getting wet again, with a little roof coverage, I found the rain-barrel filled and overflowing. All my barrels and buckets in the back were lined up - but had to be filled up in the rain. Why rush in hot humid weather when rain was not expected for another week? Put not your trust in meteorologists! They do not make little mistakes but shock us with their enormous mistakes, severe weather warnings instead of another sultry day, 95 degrees.
Here is the funny part about a line of full rain-barrels and buckets. They are not needed for some time, maybe not until the next rain. When each container is absent water and has only a bug or spider at the bottom, rain is on everyone's mind. Each day our clay soil gets whiter, and we ask each other, "What is your info on the next storm?"
Surprise! We had 50 mph winds, some reports of hail. Ranger Bob came back later because an enormous fallen tree was across a country road. Now I have brimming buckets and barrels with no compelling need to water anything.
As Luther wrote, when we have an abundance of God's blessings, which come from the Gospel, we begin to take those blessings for granted, as if everything will remain the same, no matter how much we neglect the Scriptures and teaching faith in Jesus Christ as access to God's grace and forgiveness, KJV Romans 5:2 - the verse they dare not quote.
KJV Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Although God patiently waits for us to turn away from apostasy, the tools of Gospel learning are largely scattered and unused, replaced by alarming Scripture frauds (NIV, ESV, RSV) and Management by Objective phonies, recycling the gaseous wastes of Peter Drucker.
