A COOL RAIN ON THE SABBATH

BY STEVE DUNN

It's Friday, about six o'clock.  It's raining.  The sun is still shining. about two hours ago darker clouds rolled across the mountains into our part of the Cumberland Valley.  First sun showers, but now a steady, cool rain.  My land lady and her father mowed earlier in the afternoon so already God is setting us up for next week's mowing, which I will be doing. 

Enjoyed a late lunch this afternoon at my house with my father and sister.  My Dad has been rehabbing in a nursing home for more than five weeks, getting stir crazy and a little ouchy.  My sister busted him out and Di and I threw together a celebratory lunch.

Except for a couple of errands and some picking up around the house, I didn't do much at all today.  Oh yes, swept the leaves and tree buds out of our carport.  That carport seems to be at the end of a wind tunnel that starts across the street in the neighborhood common area and ends directly against the back wall.

Sound boring.  Since my land lady mowed the lawn, I did nothing that was necessary.

That's really what makes it a Sabbath.  "And on the seventh day He rested from all His labors."

You know who I am talking about - the I AM, the Lord of all the Universe, it's Creator.  My Father God.

If anyone's work was necessary, it was His.  Yet He set aside a day to rest.  He did all that was necessary on the first six.  The only necessity on the seventh was to rest and enjoy the fruit of His labors.

 Really enjoying the rain.  Just listening to it fall.  Feeling its cold splashes carried by the breeze onto my face.  Not in a hurry for it to end.


Sometimes I get busier than any human being was ever intended to be.  I get on that tread mill and run, Steve, run.  When I am so engaged I sometimes miss the cool rain that blesses an afternoon--or at best, I see it as a nuisance.

Not so today.  It's Sabbath.  Thank You, Lord.