This has been an incredibly hot summer in these parts.....very little rain through most of the summer....dry as a bone.Being a gardener who planted a lot of new shrubs at the start of the season, I was longing for rain. I stood for hours with the garden hose watering thirsty plants in dry parched ground as I waited....and waited....and waited, along with many farmers....for rain.On the hottest of days and evenings you could scarcely breathe from the humidity. I looked to the skies for rain clouds and imagined the scent and the glorious feel of a downpour.... a steady rain to cool, replenish, and refresh.
And being an introspective soul....I asked myself if I longed for God that much. I pondered and rehearsed in my heart the verse in the Psalms....."As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God."
We all go through very dry, parched times in our life spiritually. Our faith can all but dry up when we get battered by life, pulled and pushed from all directions, and discouraged by events that leave us barely breathing from pain. Some walk away from God, hoping they find refreshment and satisfaction elsewhere, assuming He just doesn't care that much....or that maybe He's not even there.
Perhaps it's my fascination with birds, flowers, animals, nature, and the galaxies, but I only have to study those things briefly before I am drawn with respect and humility to the Creator of inexplicable beauty and design. If He took that much care designing a meaningful, incredible matrix teaming with living, interdependent creatures and the universe to sustain them in every way imaginable, how much more thought does He give to me - enough to have lived among us here and laid down all that He had to win my love and devotion.
It's a paradox. He satisfies the longing heart, but you can never get enough of Him. Like a refreshing rain shower or a glass of cool water to parch that which so easily becomes distracted, dry, and detached from Him.It's a paradox. He pursues us...but wants us to pursue Him....to long for Him and wait for Him as a bride for her groom, the farmer for the rain, and the deer for the stream of life-giving water.
"Why would you ever complain, O Jacob, or, whine, Israel, saying,
"God has lost track of me. He doesn't care what happens to me"?
Don't you know anything? Haven't you been listening?
God doesn't come and go. God lasts.
He's Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn't get tired out, doesn't pause to catch his breath.
And he knows everything, inside and out.
He energizes those who get tired,
gives fresh strength to dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out,
young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don't get tired,
they walk and don't lag behind." [Isaiah 40:27-31]
