A refreshing system
Rhona Cathcart
October 08, 2023
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Isaiah 55: 10-11 (NRSVA)
10
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,11
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
A friend of mine used to joke that her children always asked the most challenging questions when she was driving. This week, it was my three year old granddaughter’s turn when during a five minute journey she posed the rather all-encompassing question ‘Who made everything?’ Her mother and I attempted a child friendly summary involving both science and theology, but our small inquisitor was quick to want to drill into details — like, if earth was just a rock to begin with, where did water come from? This got us onto the water cycle and by the end of the day they’d been to the library for a book about it.
I remember learning about the water cycle myself as a child and being delighted with my arrowed drawing which showed water evaporating and rising from the lakes and rivers, then condensing in clouds and falling as rain. Unlike mind-boggling concepts like eternity and infinity, the self-sustaining pattern of rising and falling is easy to get your head around. It’s an efficient, ever-refreshing system. Furthermore, it has a kind of natural rhythm to it, like the rhythm of the seasons, the rhythm of poetry, the rhythm of music. Efficiency and rhythm are in Isaiah’s words for us today, expressing how God’s word works within us and within the world, constantly refreshing and renewing.
In Scotland, we have a fantastic range of words and expressions for rain, words which sometimes seem to echo the rhythms and sensations of the weather itself. And so as we travel together this week we’re going to be thinking about rain and rhythm in our lives, from the showery “yillen” to the steady but light “dreep” as we reflect on how God’s ‘word cycle’ sustains us and challenges us, refreshes and restores us, and never returns empty.
PRAYER:
God, whose love cycles through us
Rising from Jesus
And falling in graceful rhythm
Refresh us this week with your word.
Amen
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