The Drought

This was entered into a contest.  The bold sentence was a prompt, and the prompt was required to be in bold letters.}




Cerulean skies promised that today would be another scorcher. Lately, we had had more than our share of cloudless blue days filled with no rain.  The long summer drought had taken its toll on everything and everyone, and it looked as though most of the small ponds in our community were soon to become victims.  No rain was in the five day forecast, and none was in the long range forecast, at least, not the type of drenching shower that we needed to replenish all the parched, barely living plants around us.

The crops were beginning to blister under the heat. Plants shriveled with their fruit unripened. The farmers were grim with concern. Ducks and geese began to wander from stream to pond to lake and back again in search of deeper waters and food sources.

In the evenings, heat lightning flashed taunting everyone, insinuating that we might have a down-burst before morning. But, each day, we would wake disappointed.  It had not rained in over a month.  The level of water in the pond receded drastically, leaving a wide swath of dried, caked earth that had once been mud.  It appeared that the pond water was being sucked away by unseen forces whose thirst was insatiable. 
           
Our pond was no exception to the seemingly unending drought and we watched as the water receded at first by small indicators, then finally, by alarmingly large amounts.  The evaporating water left what was becoming a puddle instead of a pond.  Angry mosquitoes danced along the surface of the disappearing water.

Although we knew that God would send rain in His time, we still felt the need to ask Him to return His blessings to us in the form of life-sustaining showers. 

God is so very powerful!  His might is awesome!  And, His timing is flawless.  In answer to our prayers, He began sending small showers of rain that over a period of a couple of weeks, kept the evaporation rate down to a minimum.  While we could not see that even this small amount of rainfall was perfect in God's greater plan, it saturated the ground rather than running off like a downpour would have done, preparing the ground for what He had in store. 

When the tropical depression formed in the Gulf of Mexico and headed our way, we knew that God was sending the rainfall needed to replenish the groundwater!  Right on His schedule, God opened the heavens and overnight our pond, which had receded about three feet from the shoreline, had filled to capacity and was overflowing.

"A small thing," some would say. 

"No big deal," others would remark.
         
But, isn't our life filled with what other people perceive as small things and insignificant matters?  To God nothing in our life is too insignificant or small for Him.  In Matthew 10:30, we are told that God knows even the number of hairs on our head.  Just an insignificant detail, but nonetheless important to God!  He also tells us that we should pray without ceasing, and to turn all of the details of our life over to Him, and that He will answer our prayers.
         
After all, He cared enough for us that He sent His perfect, sinless Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our many sins, that we might have everlasting life.  Doesn't that prove to you that God thinks that even you are significant to Him?