Rain

 

Genesis 7:12 “And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.”

 

The earth is rotating on its axis, tilted at 23.5 degrees, spinning at 1000mph and orbiting around the sun in approximately 365-24 hr. days. This causes the four seasons of Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall, and with them rain falls each year in a cycle of precipitation of the water that covers 71% of the planet’s surface. In America, the western states have experienced a drought cycle for many years in a row now. The snowfall in the mountains and total inches of rain in each of those seasons has been far below normal and the rivers that feed the Reservoirs cannot keep up with the increasing demands. The lakes behind the western state’s dams have been going dry and restrictions on water usage instituted to conserve the life-giving liquid.

 

James 5:7 “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.” 

 

Well, this year appears to be making up from the previous drought years that we have been experiencing, because we are currently receiving record snow and rainfall this season due to extreme winter storms out of Alaska and across from Hawaii. All California Reservoirs are projected to fill to capacity this year. I read that the snowpack in the Upper Colorado River Basin was at 133 percent of the 30-year historical average as of Monday, and sits at 101 percent of what the basin has received on average through an entire season as of March 1 and more falling weekly. This will greatly impact both Lake Powell and Lake Mead in recovering their watershed, which has been at historic lows previously. 

 

Psalm 147:7-8 “Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; Sing praises on the harp to our God, Who covers the heavens with clouds, Who prepares rain for the earth, Who makes grass to grow on the mountains.

 

The word “rain” is contracted from “regenerate”. It is the Greek to water, and the Latins, by dropping the prefix, in “irrigo”, to irrigate. The primary sense is to pour out in Hebrew. It is understood that rain comes from God’s sovereign will and by His almighty hand as the Provider and Sustainer of the earth and all that lives upon it. Creator God made the Cosmos, the Solar system, this privileged planet and the seasons, the laws of nature and systems that provide and sustain the ego-systems, including the rain that without there could be no life.  

 

Ecclesiastes 1:7 “All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; To the place from which the rivers come, there they return again.”

 

The God that created us has a purpose for everything and everyone. Our Maker originally created this planet and then per  Genesis 1:31, “God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” Sin entered the world, and with sin came death. God has been working ever since to save the world by reconciling, restoring and forgiving the world through the atoning death of His Son Jesus Christ [the Savior of the world] to those who believe, repent and accept God’s grace by faith. The ultimate and eternal good news is that God provides the end of the spiritual drought caused by sin. It is "living water" from the Lord. Salvation is regeneration, like rain; as we are washed clean in the baptism of Christ.   

 

Matthew 5:45b “For He [God] makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.  

 

God bless the rain.

In Christ, Brian