Thankful

Rain showers my spirit

and waters my soul.

~Terri Guillemets

For some, rain is an inconvenience. It plays havoc with a perfectly coiffed hairdo and gets your shoes all wet.

But for Kansas wheat farmers, the rain over the weekend was an answer to prayer. We got 3.10 inches here on the County Line.

Before the rain, our wheat wasn't looking so good. Most of it had come up, but it was spotty and sparse. I know other farmers who didn't even have that glimmer of hope. Their planted fields were still brown. With no subsoil moisture, the newly planted wheat seeds hadn't germinated and the wheat lay dormant beneath the surface.

So the rain was a blessing. With every drop of moisture, there was an almost perceptible lifting of the collective mood in farm country.

I went to a community choir rehearsal yesterday afternoon. For the Stafford Ministerial Alliance's Community Thanksgiving service next Sunday afternoon, singers from most of Stafford's churches will come together to sing two anthems.

Most of us sing in our own church choirs. But I think we all find a message of hope and cooperation in churches coming together to worship and sing.

One of the songs is called "He's Always Been Faithful." I'd never heard it before, but it seemed like a perfect theme song after the blessing of rain.

And then, when I was on my way home, there was a rainbow in the eastern sky.

I don't know whether you can see it that well, but for me, it was like an exclamation point ... a confirmation of God's providence.

The words to the song are, in part:

Morning by morning
I wake up to find
The power and comfort of God's hand in mine

Season by season I watch him, amazed
In awe of the myst'ry
Of his perfect ways.

All I have need of
His hand will provide
He's always been faithful to me.

So, for your Monday, here's Sara Groves' rendition of "He's Always Been Faithful," which incorporates the old hymn, "Great Is Thy Faithfulness." And even more miraculously, the person who posted the video to youtube used rainbows to illustrate the music.

It's a God thing ...