It Doesn't Have to be a Quagmire

I live in Pennsylvania farm country. It’s beautiful. We’ve had a lot of rain this week.

The other day my friend John Casey said something that made me pause. He prayed out a prayer thanking God for the rain “that softens the earth.”

This area has lots of productive farms with crops of corn, soy beans, tobacco, and others on its fertile, rolling hills. The rain is obviously important to the farming.

I immediately had a mental picture of that happening.  The softening of the earth. It made sense. Of course the rain softens the ground.

Just a few minutes ago I let our dog out into the back yard. A branch had gotten blown down. I walked over to pick it up, and surprise… the ground was very soft and squishy under my feet from the rain today. One part was like a quagmire.

When I think of rain and farms, I think of the fact that plants have to have rain to grow. Without water, lawns dry up, flowers die, crops fail, and the fire danger exponentially rises. While all that is true, I don’t think I’d ever considered the importance of the softening of the ground that rain causes.

Wouldn’t it be a loving and helpful thing for God to do, - to soften the ground before the planting season? How much easier to turn over the soil that has absorbed water, than just dry, hard soil. 

An old-time writer in India talked of the benefit of rain to rice crops. “A few showers in February and April are hailed with delight because they soften the ground for ploughing.”[1] No wonder “April showers brings May flowers?!”

April showers bring weeds too. In a very practical way the softening of the soil helps solve this problem. Columnist Linda Ly observes, “Luckily, rain softens the soil, making weeding much easier on the hands and back.” [2]

It’s that softening that allows plows to cut more easily and those weeds to pop out in one piece. How kind of God?

Scripture records “You visit the earth and cause it to overflow;
You greatly enrich it;
The stream of God is full of water;
You prepare their grain, for thus You prepare the earth.
¹⁰ You water its furrows abundantly,
You settle its ridges,
You soften it with showers,
You bless its growth.
¹¹ You have crowned the year with Your bounty…”[3]

The next ttime you tromp through mud, remember how ultimately helpful that process is.

John Casey’s corollary prayer point that day was that our hearts should be soft. It doesn’t have to be a quagmire. There’s something to be said for that. A soft heart is a prepared heart. Prepared for God’s purposes.

God loves YOU today.

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[1] LSS O’Malley, “Howrah,” (New Delhi: Logos Press, 1909) p 66

[2] “Three Quick Tips for Gardening After the Rain,” Linda Ly, http://www.kcet.org/home-garden/3-quick-tips-for-gardening-after-the-rain     March 4, 2014

[3] Psalm 65:9-11 (New American Standard Bible)