Rain pattering on my window wakened me one recent morning and I pulled open the blinds to marvel over the wonder of God’s world. How intricate each part is, and yet how perfectly it fits together.
The rain hit just inches from my face, and as I was in a sleep-pensive state, I thought of how those same drops of water had been pelting the earth and being used over and over again. Time after time. Eon after eon. And yet each time arriving as fresh and clean as it was on that first day when He separated the earth from the water and ‘found it good.’
I sat up and considered how the very water on my window sill, no doubt once fell upon pre-historic man as he retreated to his cave until the storm passed by. It fell upon slaves in Egypt as they toiled under the master’s lash to raise the pyramids there.
The same water nourished the crops in Bethlehem to grow the grain, the tares and the fig trees, just as it fell here in our valley in answer to the prayers of Utah Pioneers as they faced starvation without it.
The very rain upon my window once nourished the Garden of Eden. It supported Noah’s Arc, Moses drank it in the wilderness. It carried the Pilgrim’s to our shores, and the explorers rode its waves as they braved the inland territories of our nation. Alexander, Caesar, Cleopatra, Hitler and his co-horts all drank it, as also did your own grandparents. And so do you.
It’s the same water, from time immemorial. At times moving gently, other times violently on its unending cycle. Today it falls on me and will within hours, become one with the earth beneath my lawn. There it will sink lower and lower until it reaches the deepest, most outreaching root of tree or bush, and then, through osmosis, will again begin the upward journey through an intricate root, limb and leaf system to the surface. Exactly, don’t forget, it’s the same journey when it goes through our bodies as we quaff the wonderful stuff, use, and then eliminate it.
The hunger and thirst of the tree will suck it up, up and up and on every step of the journey, the tree will leech minerals and food from it. It will continue rising until it finally reaches the outmost leaf of tree or bush and there, through a miracle called photo-synthesis, it, along with the sun, will feed the very air we breath. Re-charging it with oxygen, and thusly making it possible for all animal life, including you and me, to live.
And when that final act is finished, the drop of water will evaporate into the air, where as dew and mist will rise again. And will remain so, as it is cleansed and re-charged with oxygen and minerals, while at same time, gathering together with other minute droplets of moisture until a tiny cloud, perhaps hundreds of miles in space will form.
How long does it float there? A year? Two? Dozens or hundreds? Who can tell. But eventually it will become one with other small clouds, and the winds will send them through space, coming nearer and nearer to the earth and sooner or later drop again to the ground. Or perhaps it will drop and become one with the ocean and rise again as steam under some hot tropical sun.
Or maybe it will come as snow to some mountain top and remain there as a glacier for thousands of years, but yet moving slowly, slowly downward until it drops into the ocean as an iceberg ‘calf’ that will ultimately melt as it drifts south. Or perhaps it will drop on some arid African desert where man, animal and vegetable life will lift thankful arms and hearts to its coming.
Or, just maybe, it will continue its cycle of bringing sustenance to the earth by falling once more upon my window and wakening such thoughts of God’s harmony in my mind. And so, that’s how one of my days began last week. And, how was your day?
I hope just as wonderful, and that in some way you, too, travel through time and space as I did. And I thank God for how intricate and yet how simple He made our world, and for giving we mortals Minds to see, accept, and then explore His wonders.
Yes, oh yes, I Thank you, God for raindrops on my window. Only inches from my eyes . . . . and Mind . . . and Heart.
ethelbrad@comcast.net
I remember as a kid how I thot about the ultimate in perpetual motion machines, an effort on the part of GE or Westinghouse would bring us into the 21 st century never wanting energy to keep us warm, or cool. I keep wondering how the creator established his little motions of osmosis, evaporation or vapor to water again as being the most efficient way to recycle energy and keep us living without our help it seems that unless we developed it, invented it, or captured it, it somehow isn’t real. How arrogant we are.
JIM, thank you. You put thoughts into words that I wish I had realized and put them into the blog. BUT YOU DID IT FOR ME, AND SO AGAIN I SAY THANK YOU. Your last sentence is so true.
Adene’s experiences this last week is one more time and circumstances that we bow and say Thank you God, Will hear from you again, Ethel
Jim thank you. You carried my words further than I did. Yeah, perpetual motion, in action. I too have pondered that thought, and connected it to our bodies, but that one doesn’t hold in it’s entirety. But water seems to. Thanx. and the last week’s happenings with Adene has been another of God’s blessings. And Hey, but how are Ken and Sue???? I know they’re still up north, but tell them Hi from me. I’m sure they;re on the Internet so pass my greetings along to them. ethel