Through the Scent of Water (500 Words)

I had the most privileged of upbringings—I was raised on a farm nestled against the banks of the Bouie River in rural Jefferson Davis County. As a young child skipping down the dusty rows of dried corn shocks, I once startled a juvenile fox whose youthful indiscretions, too, had led him into the unexplored maze. Momentarily, we both summoned the courage to eye each other, then, thought better of it and ran full speed in opposite directions! For me the farm held tantalizing mysteries of God and Nature—it was my glorious playland!

But playlands can teach us “life lessons”—lessons with precious memories and eternal qualities. Amidst a backdrop of distant cotton fields in dire need of water, my parents would pray for a “good” rain. The farmers who worshipped at the white-framed Methodist Church near the river would also petition for rain at Sunday prayer-time. In the mind of a six-year-old, the nexus was irrefutably made: God can give water, if we pray. And it sure seemed, more often than not, that in the following days as our attic fan lumbered to draw the hot, dry breeze through the screened doors and windows, Momma would abruptly stop her household duties and announce with nose held high, “Thank the Lord…I smell a rain coming!” As an adult, I often wondered if her nose was agrarian or spiritual. I’ve come to realize—it was both!

With a quickening of these precious memories, I read afresh a passage in the Book of Job the other day: “For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.”

Through the scent of water. Momma was right—you can “smell” water! When all hope is gone—when there is no natural reason or resource which can restore and redeem an individual, a family, a community, and, yes, even a nation, The Almighty, as Job referenced Him, can cause us to “smell” His Scent of Life-Giving Water. He, alone, can resurrect that which has been cut down beyond natural help. His unfathomable Love, in response to human misery as the depths of Job, sends us His Scented Rain. Elijah’s servant in Old Testament times actually saw it coming upon a deprived nation. After Elijah fervently prayed seven times for rain, his servant returned from the precipice of Mount Carmel and declared, “…there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand.” Afterwards, God answered in abundance!

May our beloved nation catch the Scent of His Water today and may every reader in need of hope receive His Outpouring. With effectual prayers and fervent faith we lift our heads and say, “Thank the Lord…I smell a rain coming!”