The Scent Of Water

The Scent of Water

After a long, dry summer, much of what was green is turning brown, and what’s still green is wilting. The azaleas in the front flower bed beg for watering, and I oblige as often as my conscience (and city watering prohibitions) allow. But every now and then, it rains. Last night it did. You could smell the rain before it fell: that damp, salty aroma of clouds pregnant with water. You could hear it as it neared, with the low grumble of thunder. And you could see the telltale lightning in the distance—a flickering lightbulb behind the clouds.

As the rain neared, every green thing began to murmur. The wind blew, and the treetops and the hedges began to twist and rustle in anticipation. Leaves fluttered as the drops began to fall. When the rain came down harder, it sounded like applause ringing out up and down the block.

Sometimes I get dry. Really dry. I can almost feel my soul shrivel and my heart wilt. I wonder that my skin doesn’t grow as brittle as the heart it covers. Sometimes I need rain.

And then the winds begin to blow. The ones you can’t see, only feel. A peculiar tremor of grace tells me it might be about to rain. I see a glimpse of light on my heart’s horizon, and I think it may herald something wet and welcome. The low thunder of a well-timed word or a stray lyric or even a whispered prayer hints that what I need is coming on a different kind of cloud. And soon.

Is it a dry season? Do you need rain too?

My King says, “Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart’” (John 7:38). The world gets watered from the outside in. But the Christ follower is watered from the inside out. When I pray for the rain that my soul needs, somehow my God releases it. I can’t say with authority how it works—but I’ve seen mostly lifeless things go green too often to doubt that it does.

Though its roots have grown old in the earth and its stump decays, at the scent of water it will bud and sprout again like a new seedling.

Job 14:8-9