~ I took these pictures looking out at the rain from our windows - May 27, 2010 - it is HARD to take good pictures of rain - but even though I'm not entirely pleased with them, it still gives me some kind of visual aid to accompany this powerful verse
I LOVE this verse. The context is a conversation between the prophet Elijah and the wicked king Ahab, which follows immediately after the showdown with the prophets of Baal, which follows a very long drought in the land of Israel. The part that thrills me about Elijah's statement is that it was spoken entirely in the spiritual realm. In the physical, there was no sound of rain: not a trickle, not a sprinkle, not a drizzle, and certainly not an abundance. In fact, after Elijah says this, he goes to the top of Carmel, starts praying, and then instructs his servant to go look for a cloud. There was no cloud. If there was no sight of a cloud from the top of this mountain, there was certainly no sound of abundant rain! Six times, this drama repeated, until finally during the seventh time, the servant sees "a cloud as small as a man's hand" - still no sound of rain though. But the rain comes! Before long, "the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on!" Finally, the sound of the abundant rain is present in the physical that Elijah had already heard in the spiritual.
This reminds me of another verse that I LOVE (but which I couldn't find...I looked all over the Bible, but finally had to ask Jeff to help me...it didn't take him long to track it down...that's why I married him) :). Romans 4:17 says, "...the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were." It takes incredible faith to do this. But that's what God does. That's what Elijah did. And that's what I want to do.
4 comments:
The pictures are great and it's wonderful to tie the two verses together. I hadn't thought much about Romans 4:17 recently but I clung to that verse during our long bout of infertility. Now to read that verse again while nursing my little Talitha (Mark 5:41)- the power, depth and meaning are indescribable.
It's raining here, too -- and is forecast to keep up until next week. I love it when it rains! You can sense the plants soaking up the moisture, and the colours in the garden are deep and beautiful.
Your pictures are incredible, and I love how you related them to the verse. That story is one of my very favorites. And I come across it so infrequently (although I was trying to talk to the girls in the car about it last week - coincidence?). Thank you!
That was just beautiful, Davene. And a fantastic reminder of how God calls us to "see" beyond the seeing of our eyes and "hear" beyond the hearing of our ears.
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