Winter-weary world

Winds whistle and whip the cold drops of rain in all directions. This is what my cousin calls horizontal rain, and I’m sure it happens in places other than Scotland but certainly, it does happen here.

The news is full of reports of the beleaguered folk in the southwest of England, some of whom have been living in a moated village for a month now since the flooding first began. Prince Charles paid them a visit yesterday, arriving in a tractor and wearing welly boots. His visit no doubt encouraged some people and raised the morale, but after a couple of hours, he left again. 

This morning the winds down there have uprooted trees from the soggy ground, sending them crashing across power lines and knocking out the electricity supplies, adding yet another layer of misery to people who have had too much water. And their royal visitor has gone.

So often in the Bible weariness is equated with dry, parched desert conditions, but a daily regime of grey skies overhead and flood waters underfoot is another recipe for creating weariness in people. 

Times of refreshment which the Bible promises the Lord will send may not always look like a bubbling brook. In our case, they look like clear blue skies and a powerful sun bringing warmth to a winter-weary world.

It’s hopeless to depend on the weather for refreshment from life. The Bible promises that ‘times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord’. 

Wherever you are today, may you experience the presence of the Lord, and the refreshment that only Jesus can bring.