Last night’s headline news was of the drought across most of England.
Well. Not up here, that’s for sure. It’s rained pretty much most of the day although now, at 8 pm, the western sky is a rosy hue blending into the darker grey cloud hovering above. And it was lovely late this afternoon.
As I squelched round the slippery track this morning, I thought about the way the earth looks when it is really desperately dry. The cracks where water once flowed. The dust from the roadsides. Our rain today was probably what farmers would call perfect, steady but not pounding, enough to give the crops a good long drink without washing away the seed.
When I was growing up in southern California, my parents had a garden hose called a ‘soaker’. It was a normal rubber hose except that it was relatively flat, and it was perforated at regular intervals. My mother would lay the soaker in amongst the flowers that needed a slow, steady drink without getting their foliage wet.
It prevented the ground from hardening into clods and cracks that would not be able to absorb fast-falling rain. It kept the soil permeable, absorbent.
Christians need to live in our hardened society, like a soaker. We need to live lives of integrity, pointing to Jesus, usually without words – the steady, gentle moisture of God’s unconditional love permeating those hearts which have hardened to Him.
The situation is getting desperate – the spiritual drought is real.
Will you become a soaker with me?
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