Rain, rain, and then….

We have had an abundance of rain here on the prairie this past month. There have been storms galore and days when it poured and even surprise showers in the night when I would wake and wonder what the sound of running water was. 

The plants are loving it. Our flowers and yard have never looked this lush in late June.

We are loving it because we haven’t had to labor to water nor pay for the privilege of it with our monthly utility bill. 

But yesterday Russ and I ran into some friends at the big box hardware store down the way. Russ used to work with the wife and her husband is a farmer. We once took the grands out to see her chickens and his cows and they loved it. 

As we chatted, Russ asked her about work and him about the farm. He said they had a ton of hay to finally bale now that it was dry. We talked a bit about the rain because we are, after all, midwesterners in a small town so that’s a hot topic. 

I mentioned how we knew it had been too much but our pots around the yard have never looked lovelier. 

He sighed and said, yes the crops look so green but now we have to hope for regular rain for the rest of the summer. He said June needs to be a bit drier so the young plants develop deep roots. 

With all the rain, there has been no need for that. And now if we suffer from dry, hot days, there is no depth to the root system to dig deep for nourishing moisture. 

And that preaches, doesn’t it. 

He said plants are like people. They don’t work when they can get what they want for free. 

I liken it to the harder parts of life. And children. 

We don’t like to see our children suffer, or lack. We ache for them when they face a trial in relationships or on a team. We want to make the exams go away so we don’t have to keep reminding them to get out the study guide. 

But this is where deep roots grow. 

What a tangible reminder for me.

I basically live to make paths smooth for our family. When someone has a hiccup on the road, I stew and wonder what we did wrong. 

We didn’t do anything wrong. 

The trials and the hard work, the boring days and the routines that grow old but remain necessary…this is where the roots develop. 

Our Graham will be traveling to Ecuador with a group from school this summer. I have faithfully prayed for each one by name and for the things he asked us to pray for. One has been hard.

The item I struggle to release in prayer is that he will be changed. 

Of course I want him to be changed in all the good ways, but I know from experience that part of the change he will encounter is a heart broken by what he sees.

I remember the first time my heart broke as we ran out of food to feed an endless, hungry line of children in a rural area outside Monterrey, Mexico. 

It wasn’t just the fact that we had nothing more to give and many plates went unfilled. It was watching our young people with tears streaming having to say “No mas” to one after another of those tired, hungry faces.

It was getting on the bus and driving away in heavy silence. 

It was knowing that even the ones who had eaten a small bowl of rice and meat and vegetables would still have nothing tomorrow.

We had never seen such poverty and it changed us. 

I have been changed in clinics in Kenya and cleaning a safe house for mothers and their children to be off the streets of our own community. 

I have been changed by teaching a Bible study to women and men at the crisis pregnancy center. 

I have been changed by helping host a Christmas party for families at the local correctional facility. 

And those experiences have caused my roots to grow deeper. 

So yes, I want him to change.

Even though he doesn’t realize what we are asking for. 

I want his roots to grow deep. 

So I release him to a God who is so gracious that He sometimes withholds what we want to give us what we need.