When our SoCal skies get cloudy, we hope for rain to ease our desert climate. Although we’ve had a good dose this year, I’m still skeptical at forecasts for precipitation. In our region, those overcast skies don’t always deliver moisture. Israel has a similar desert climate and rain is a blessing. It’s a huge disappointment when the rains do not come. The Bible picks up on this imagery to convey the importance of authenticity.
Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of a gift he does not give. Proverbs 25:14
Have you ever been promised something but failed to receive it? Depending on how badly it was needed, it can range from disappointing to devastating. I wonder how often I have under-delivered. Maybe I hinted I could provide something I couldn’t. Did I want to look important? Connected? Maybe I just forgot. In any case, I wasn’t the real deal. It looked good – there was a promise of life-giving rain – but the cloud just blew over empty.
These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. Jude 12
Jude also warns of those within the fellowship who present as something they are not. While they look promising, they have nothing real to offer. They are dead.
I don’t want to be an empty cloud – hope without fulfillment. Adding another Biblical image, I want God to provide Living Water through me. I bear His name and I should deliver His love more surely than a cloud releases its rain.
Spirit, pour through me and let me be a vessel of His truth, His mercy, and His forgiveness. Let it rain.
