*Taken from my journal on 01/31/09, the day after we first heard the rain.*
Last night after service at the Messianic synagogue and a wonderful meal at Foccacia, the ladies in our room were indulging in some beauty treatments before the busy week ahead. With toenails still wet with polish, I pulled my hair back and was getting ready to put on a mud mask when a familiar but longtime absent sound met my ears. I listened for just a moment before a roommate came rushing in and confirmed what we had all just heard: “it’s raining”.
To step out onto that familiar balcony and see everything around me glistening with much needed water, to watch it pour down from the night sky, to feel the fresh cool wind on my face… such an invigorating moment. Rain over Israel.
For months now this land has been parched. The beautiful Sea of Galilee sits some thirty feet lower than it did last summer. It has been a dry, dry winter for Israel. Until now.
While such a brief shower will certainly not quench such thirsty ground, I have to believe this shower to be the beginning, not the end, of rain over Israel.
Ever since we arrived and heard of the nation’s need for water, we have been praying for rain. And with a thousand, thousand drops of grace, God answered last night. But the land needs more than water. The dryness is not just that of the rocks and dust. There is dryness also in the souls of men and a thirst for God in newness of intimacy. Dry souls in need of living water, a thirst for Messiah Who is Life Incarnate.
But to quench this thirst, a different sort of grace must fall. So once again we ask, Lord, let it rain over Israel.
No comments:
Post a Comment