Looking for rain
HUMAN ingenuity so often seems the panacea for almost every ill -- except when it comes to nature, when it comes to a drought. In the middle of acres of withering green corn and beneath cloudless blue skies, farmers understandably feel they are fighting a battle with forces beyond their control. The hugeness of a drought -- or any so-called natural disaster -- can so easily provoke feelings of frustration and helplessness, even as it forces us to look at how much we depend on technology and on human invention to meet our needs. But the best help is not far off. It is not in some future invention or distant technology. Not in manipulating the clouds or the earth or finding out more about the weather. It is at hand in the simple but all-important spiritual fact of God's nature as the one true creator.
Droughts aren't new. They've been around since the beginning of recorded history. But they haven't been around since the beginning.
The Scriptural record reports that ``in the beginning'' God created the earth and commanded it to bring forth plants and trees and to yield seeds and fruit, ``and it was so.'' He also created ``cattle, and creeping thing,'' we're told, and ``God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.''1 No parched ground. No stunted crops. No malnourished livestock. All was well; all was good. All creation was and is dependent on God alone for life and health.
Christian Science, in line with the inspired spiritual teachings of the Bible, begins with God in order to understand the universe in all its glory, beauty, perfection, and vastness, including man, God's spiritual likeness. God, Spirit, is the one infinite cause; therefore His creation is purely spiritual. The Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy,2 explains this point: ``Creation rests on a spiritual basis. We lose our standard of perfection and set aside the proper conception of Deity, when we admit that the perfect is the author of aught that can become imperfect, that God bestows the power to sin, or that Truth confers the ability to err.''3
It is a clear perception of God's allness and total goodness, humbly acknowledged and accepted, that can open the way to bring needed adjustments to the human scene -- supplying lack, recovering what was lost, moving the seemingly immobile, modifying extremes. Such effects result not from pleading with God for help but from calm, trustful turning to Him as the originator and always best maintainer of creation. But this often demands particular sacrifices from us. Turning toward God alone means turning resolutely away from fear, doubt, and confidence in merely human means of trying to solve the problem. It means resting in His love, His goodness, His total care.
The Bible includes many examples of the efficacy of prayer, which prove God's government of the universe. The Old Testament prophets Elijah and Elisha on separate occasions resorted wholeheartedly to God on behalf of the Israelites, and severe droughts abruptly ended. Jesus' dominion over physical conditions also came solely through his understanding of God's perfect control over His creation, enabling him to still a storm, walk over the water, and feed thousands with what seemed barely enough food for a few.
In the centuries since Elijah and Elisha and the Way-shower, Christ Jesus, God hasn't changed one bit. And His creation is still just as undepleted and spiritually ideal as He caused it to be ``in the beginning.'' In fact, as Science and Health says, ``Creation is ever appearing, and must ever continue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source.''4 So we have every reason to expect more variety, more richness and bounty and beauty in our environment, as we more consistently count on God to meet our needs.
These days it's understandable if many are anxiously looking for rain -- or for man-made responses to arid conditions. But we'll find infinitely more satisfying results if we look fearlessly to God, the creator of all that truly is, and rejoice in the fact that nothing can undo the good that He has done.
1See Genesis, Chapter 1. 2The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. 3Science and Health, p. 555. 4Ibid., p. 507. You can find more articles like this one in the Christian Science Sentinel, a weekly magazine. DAILY BIBLE VERSE: Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
