he will come like the rains...

Sometimes in life it seems like God is really providing, that he is letting all the good things come down from heaven like winning team-colored confetti after a championship game. God gives all sorts of good things from heaven, from up above.

One of the first unusual things to come from heaven was manna. Manna is pretty sweet. The Bible says it came in little wafers, white like coriander seed, and it tasted like honey. (I think manna was like Nilla Wafers, which are pretty much bomb.) The manna came every day except for Sabbaths, and there was enough for each day…for 40 years. For 40 years, God sent manna for the Israelites to eat in the desert. While I’m sure that got really old really fast, God’s faithfulness is seen in the manna raining down like dew every single morning for 40 years.

Another good thing that comes from heaven is rain. Where I went to college, rain is expected and normal and often annoying. Rain means having to pull out rain boots and rain jacket and umbrella and still getting soggy while I walk around campus. But where I grew up in a farm community, rain was important. Everyone talks about weather, even if they’re not farmers, and everyone knows whether it is too wet or too dry for the crops.

But I don’t think we even knew what too dry was. Now I live in the San Joaquin Valley, the breadbasket of America, producer of most of the country’s fruit and vegetables. But without irrigation, nothing would be growing here. Our yard is proof of that. We don’t water a lawn, so we have brown prickly weeds, and no grass. Lots of people are arguing about irrigating the Valley, because the fish farmers in the Sacramento Delta want to save their water for the fish, and the environmentalists in San Francisco (who get their water from a part of Yosemite National Park—Hetch Hetchy—that has been desecrated to make a dam) also want to save the fish and the delta. I wonder sometimes if the environmentalists and fish farmers do not like grapes and tomatoes and olives and nuts.

Emotions and opinions run high in the dry Valley. Much of the Valley’s economic system depends on agriculture. A nearby community has a 40% unemployment rate, largely due to the way the entire lifestyle is centered around farming. And farming just isn’t doing well, as farmers wrestle with a weak economy and little water; so they try to cut back on the number of farm laborers. No one here really expects to find manna in their yards or between the grape vines.

Israel also depended on agriculture for their needs, once they reached the Promised Land and could grow food instead of waiting for manna. If the crops grew well, Israel rejoiced in God’s favor. If there was a drought, Israel mourned God’s wrath and went hungry. Hosea 6:1-3 exhorts Israel to seek God, confident of his provision if his people repent.

“Come, let us return to the LORD…Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.”

While we may be lacking water in the Valley, we’ve got plenty of sun. I never expect that the sun will not be shining when I get up in the morning—it’s always there. And just as the sun comes up every day, so will God come to us with rain.

All the good things come from heaven. Manna, rain, sun. Sometimes it seems so dry, and the manna so long ago. But they’re coming anyway, as surely as the sun rises every day. God will come to us to give manna in the desert and rains to water the earth.