All day today I’ve been waiting for the rain.  It was supposed to arrive this afternoon, then this evening, now it looks like it will finally arrive around 3 or 4 in the morning.  Driving home just after dusk tonight we were treated to a dramatic preview into the storm that is coming.  The clouds were billowy and dark and obviously full of rain….but just not ready to open up and pour yet.  The air smells like rain….the wind is blowing it our way….all indications point to a downpour.  But still…..no rain.

This has been a very dry winter season here in the central valley of California.  There has been very little snow in the mountains that feed the rivers and aquaducts that carry the water down to the ranchers, farmers and growers who depend on this water to raise livestock and grow all sorts of grain, vegetables, fruits, nuts…..it all literally lives and dies by this precious natural resource called water.  The fields can be plowed and the seed sown, but if there’s no rain, no source of life, even man-made attempts to water through irrigation fail as the wells run dry.  We are literally dependent on this water that falls freely from the sky.

Somewhere along this Lenten road, I’ve come to the realization that…

I’m thirsty.  And I’m really, really ready for the rain to come.

All my “go to” wells that are usually supplied with the left-over abundance of past downpours are running low.  I’m so in need of the fresh, cleansing, nourishing life-giving water of God’s Spirit to not only come, but to pour!

In a few moments I am going to post this blog, then I’m going outside to check on the rain.  And as I do, I’m going to pray that the same God who is even now swirling the heavens to create much needed moisture for the land, will also send an inner fresh wind my way.

And I’ll pray for rain.

“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you;

I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you,

in a dry and parched land where there is no water.”

Psalm 63:1