And So I Thank the Lord

We've had a lot of rain lately here in the south. My rain gauge is proof. And those two and a half inches came all in one night! I've been hearing people saying over and over that they're sick of the rain. Tired of it! Want it to stop. To go away!

Careful what you wish for! Just two short years ago we were having a drought. No rain. All the grass was an ugly scorched brown. Some of the trees died. There was a very real threat of forest fires out here in the country where we live. It was scary.

Right now everything is so GREEN! The trees. The grass. The weeds. The muskadine vines. Just a beautiful, lush green everywhere.

Sometimes we take things for granted I think. We just take it for granted that we will get just the right amount of rain. Not too much. Not too little. But when it does get dry and the ground is parched, then we start complaining and praying for rain. On the other hand, when we get a lot of rain and everything is growing at such a fast pace we just take it for granted. We enjoy it and expect it.

I remember the night before I got married. Our pastor took my husband-to-be and myself in his office and talked to us after church that Wednesday night. The only thing I really remember about that talk was that he told us to never take each other for granted. He told us that it was really easy to fall in the habit of expecting each other to do certain things. I'm sure that sometimes God is taken for granted in our lives. I need to remember that God sends the rain or He can hold it back. I should remember always to thank Him when He supplies my needs.

Back when I was just a young girl one of my friends that lived next door and I would sing a song that she called the "Johnny Appleseed Song". I'm not sure where it came from but we would sing it with all the gusto we could muster. It went like this:

"O the Lord is good to me. And so I thank the Lord.

For giving me, the things I need...

the sun and the moon and the apple seed...

.the Lord is good to me!"

And so He is!

"Thank you Lord for all the beautiful green-ness you have put before my eyes daily. Thank you that we don't have to be thirsty. Thank you that we don't have to worry about our woods catching on fire. Thank you for the rain!"

"He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth." Psalm 72: 6

Marilyn

***Saturday a.m. update****

This is what is going on right now in north MS. :)