And Out of the Fire

I love my fiance. If you haven't gathered that by now, you should know it for a fact. Tonight we went to Arby's and grabbed a sandwich before going to Starbucks to use the internet for setting up gas (house gas...though the Arby's was.....ok never mind) and after our driving we went back to the house so I could drop him off. We hate goodbye's.

Let me put it this way: I am SO over saying goodbye to the man I love at the front door of our home. Twenty-two days could not go by any faster.

He made me sit down on the porch steps and we watched the clouds gather and the lightening pop. We were praying for rain.

"Sarah, you know what?" he says...
"What, babe?"
"Sin is like the fires. It devastates our relationship with God. It tears down everything that has grown and leaves us dead. But then, when we let Him, God sends the rain. He rains down on us and then all that was dead begins to grow back. And know what? It doesn't just grow back. It grows back so much healthier and stronger than it was the first time. We just have to let him."

I don't know if I have ever seen beauty to a fire. I hate hate hate fires. It comes from being a country girl and watching land suffer, cattle die, my daddy look tired, and ranchers lose all they spent years of their lives working to acquire and build. I hate the smell of grass smoke. I don't like firetruck sirens. I don't like flames.

I love rain. I love the smell, the feel, the dampness on my skin, the wet feet, the muddy yard, the cool breezes....I adore it and always have. ALSO part of being a country kid.

I have never looked at our sin as the same as a land fire. It burns, it scorches, it devastates, and it kills. We are left desolate with little hope unless the Almighty sends the rains of grace. We have to let Him come in with the rain. When He does, the growth will come back even stronger and healthier. Why? Because now we know what it means to be ".....dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath." (Eph. 2:1-3) Let the rains come. When they come they show His mercy, His grace, and His love. "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved." (Eph. 2:4-5)

Oh, God, heal the burned land....physically and spiritually. Send the rains and make the grass come back even stronger than the growth before. Bring fruit. Bring newness of life.

I love my fiance's insight. I love how he made me think. And I love how we felt a couple rain drops fall while we sat and watched the show of God's power.

Praying for rain,
Sarah