Rain!

It’s been over a month since we last had any precipitation here in Canberra. It’s been hard. Water restrictions have allowed us to water the plants (not the grass) in our gardens by hand only once a week during a three-hour window on Sunday evening, and this has not been enough to counteract all the moisture which the summer sun has sucked out of them most days. I’ve watched the trees and shrubs in our back garden basically start to die. Their leaves have folded up and drooped lifelessly, and one tree’s leaves have already turned yellow and started to fall.

Imagine how pleased I was then to be woken about 6:00 yesterday morning by booming thunder accompanied by pouring rain. It didn’t last long, but I was literally grateful for every drop that fell. Thankfully, those drops from the morning weren’t the last. It clouded up again yesterday afternoon, and by 6:30 it was raining again. I’m not sure how hard or how long it rained since I was inside a rugby club attending a wedding reception all night, but things seemed quite wet when I walked outside at 10:30. Again I was very grateful.

This morning we woke up to more puddles, so it must have rained at least a little bit during the night. At church, of course, we expressed our thanks for the rain and plead fervently for more. Then, during priesthood meeting opening exercises, we heard the pounding of rain on the chapel roof. That was about six hours ago, and it’s pretty much been raining since, mostly lightly though sometimes heavily. I’ll gladly take whatever God in His mercy will allow us. I just looked at the shrub outside my window, and already it is looking perkier.