Robert Clements
There was a brown, barren patch of land behind my home.
“It looks like the Sahara Desert!” I used to say as nothing grew there, and then overnight it’s become green. A few drops of rain, a few peals of thunder and the brown earth has yielded to roots that had been waiting to spring out and up with shouts of joy!
That’s the monsoons in India, when God with a giant paint brush paints the whole country green, the only difference being that on the brush there’s only rain, and the green jumps out when His brush touches the land.
In the TV series, ‘Vikings’ one of the Vikings says, that the sound of thunder is that of Thor beating his drums, and I agree, only replacing Thor, with God, who in the realms of heaven uses his drums and flashes of lightning to reveal His absolute magnificence!
And that is what it is all about, isn’t it?
Those large spaces turning from barren brown to lush green, those streaks of light lighting the sky, all reveal His power and grace.
Power yes, but why grace?
Because who else but a gracious God would voluntarily give succor to people below, most of whom hardly acknowledge His presence. For that matter what about you and me? Even as we watched the water situation turning bad and prayed for rain, did any one of us thank Him for the first shower?
And yet, that patch of brown, turning luscious green behind my home tells me that a gracious God, doesn’t hold that against me.
And as the monsoon rains come down, that green will turn to trees and plants, with stretching branches, and spreading leaves, all on a piece of once brown barren land.
That piece of ground, once brown reminds me of you and me.
Some of us, bitter, broken, bruised, and battered, forsaken by friends and most everybody, looked down by those who are better off, and taken for granted by people who once loved us, and suddenly when the brown is so barren, that it looks like the Sahara, the first showers lightly fall, and I cry, “Me God? You think me worthy of your blessings?”
The second shower confirms that it is not a whim from Him, but that He intends to steadily and purposefully pour His blessings on you and me, till the Everglades and Equatorial forests, look like counterfeits, and photocopied versions of the original, that is us!
The monsoons have come, and as you, like me, look at brown patches turning green, look up and thank a God of grace, who showers us with blessings just when we think we are brown, barren, bruised and broken..!
Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and author. He blogs at www.bobsbanter.com and can be reached at bobsbanter@gmail.com
