Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

• Genesis 9:13

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

• 2 Peter 3:10

“Anyone who withholds kindness from a friend
    forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams,
    as the streams that overflow
when darkened by thawing ice
    and swollen with melting snow,
but that stop flowing in the dry season,
    and in the heat vanish from their channels.
Caravans turn aside from their routes;
    they go off into the wasteland and perish.
The caravans of Tema look for water,
    the traveling merchants of Sheba look in hope.

• Job 6:14-19

“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
    or seen the storehouses of the hail,
which I reserve for times of trouble,
    for days of war and battle?
What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,
    or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
    and a path for the thunderstorm,
to water a land where no one lives,
    an uninhabited desert,
to satisfy a desolate wasteland
    and make it sprout with grass?
Does the rain have a father?
    Who fathers the drops of dew?
From whose womb comes the ice?
    Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
when the waters become hard as stone,
    when the surface of the deep is frozen?
“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades?
    Can you loosen Orion’s belt?
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
    or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
Do you know the laws of the heavens?
    Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?
“Can you raise your voice to the clouds
    and cover yourself with a flood of water?
Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
    Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
Who gives the ibis wisdom
    or gives the rooster understanding?
Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
    Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens
when the dust becomes hard
    and the clods of earth stick together?
“Do you hunt the prey for the lioness
    and satisfy the hunger of the lions
when they crouch in their dens
    or lie in wait in a thicket?
Who provides food for the raven
    when its young cry out to God
    and wander about for lack of food?

• Job 38:22-41

He spreads the snow like wool
    and scatters the frost like ashes.

• Psalm 147:16

Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rainin the next few years except at my word.”

• 1 Kings 17:1

And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.” So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.
“Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked.
“There is nothing there,” he said.
Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.”
The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.”
So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’”
Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain started falling and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. The power of the Lord came on Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.

• 1 Kings 18:41-46

Boilerplate

I’m Harold Dykstra.  I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story.  My time is well spent.  A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel.  I did not know she was an angel at the time.  The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone.  And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy.  She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others.  She changed my life.

In her leaving, she said someone would come.  I had thought that was Jesus, in His second coming, but a new Babs, a little older, the model for the posable action figure arrived.  While I had no desire to start over with romance, Morrie helped her move in, thinking she was the other Babs who had returned.

This Week’s Question

Last week, Babs talked to Joseph and Mary Jones.  She had her reasons for not being on camera, but she would contribute to the new feeding the homeless mission in Tracy in other ways.  I think Mary convinced her that her voice might be good for voice overs.

This week she was moping all day.  She said that she looked in our backyard and her snow angel was gone.  It had been raining all day, and rain is a great snow eater.  And she liked looking in the back yard and seeing her snow angel.

I quoted a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  It’s on the public domain.

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Rainy Day

Babs asked, “Is that in the Bible?”

I smiled, “No, that was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  The poem is The Rainy Day, and he wrote it after his first wife’s death.”

Babs’ eyes sparkled, “You said, ‘first wife.’  Harold Dykstra, are you thinking of a second wife?”

I shrugged, “Sure, this woman down the street.  But she’s taken.”

Babs punched me on the arm.  “You, Cad!  How horrible, and when there was someone a lot closer who is available.”

I snickered, “But you want a dating experience, that slow process of knowing that you truly are compatible with the other person.  You have not been here three months yet!”

Babs slid closer and put her arms around me.  “Does it have to be that slow?  After all, I have known you in dream form for nearly a year and a half!”

We kissed, but only for a few Mississippis.

Babs asked, “Can we talk about the weather in our Bible study this afternoon?  I don’t see this rain letting up any time soon.”

I nodded, “You betch’um, Red Ryder!”

Babs asked, “Where did that come from?”

I laughed, “An old television show that I only saw in reruns, Red Ryder.  His sidekick, a Native American boy named Little Beaver, would agree with the Red Ryder’s plan by saying, ‘You betch’um, Red Ryder.’”

Babs sighed, “I didn’t think I would see this day.  You used an expression from a sidekick, making me the hero!  Let’s stick to the Bible study theme, but you making me a hero for a moment has made my day, Harold!”

With that, she was gone, and I went to the dining room, my new office, to do my research.

After a simple supper, Babs asked, “Is the rain going to stop or do we have to gather animals onto a big boat?”

I groaned, “I didn’t study that story, but the rainbow is God’s symbol of not destroying the earth by water.  But God does not promise to never destroy the earth.  The next time, it will be by fire.”

Babs scrunched her nose, “Where do those verses come from that say that, hmmm?”

I sighed, “Like I said, Babs, I did not prepare for that.”

Babs giggled, “Then look up Genesis 9:13 and 2 Peter 3:10.”

I huffed, “So, this is mess with the teacher night, is it?”

Babs giggled, “It’s no fun unless I get a gotcha in there on occasion.”

I moaned, “Okay, you have had your fun.  Now, read Job 6:14-19.”  She did so.  “So, God provides water in various forms.  You lived for some time in California.  Without the mountains holding a lot of snow, you might have a water shortage when you need that water the most.  What do you think of ‘darkened by thawing ice’?”

Babs shrugged, “You said it yourself.  I spent a lot of time in southern California, or as some people called it, Calipornia, and that referred to the higher brow stuff than what I was involved in.  But then Arizona and New Mexico.  No clue about ‘darkened by thawing ice.’”

I shook my head, “Have you ever heard of ‘black ice’?”

Babs scrunched her nose, “So, Black ice isn’t ice at all.  It’s thawed ice, which is water?”

I shook my head.  “Remind me to not let you drive right after a thaw-freeze cycle.  Ice is slick.  Ice with a little water covering it is even slicker.  And when you have a windrow of snow and ice that melts during the day, and the water then covers the road and then partially refreezes during the night, you can be driving over dry pavement and then hit one of those spots and totally lose control at far too high of a speed.  And the best thing to do is take your foot off the gas and keep the wheel straight, only turning the wheel if the car starts a skid, and do a lot of really fast praying.  If you turn sideways and then hit dry pavement, you could flip.  Of course, ox carts in the time of Job could not drive that fast.  But this passage speaks of God’s provision, but then there is a season when we must be careful due to a lack of water coming in the form of rain or snow.  God grants us enough, when we are faithful to Him, but only if we are wise in the use of our resources.”

Babs nodded, but she had a smile on her face.  I was sure that she had something up her sleeve.

I said, “Now read Job 38:22-41.”

Babs protested, “Where is the verse here, verse there?  This is twenty verses, Harold!”  I gave her a grimace, but she read the entire thing.  “Now, I know why you wanted me to read the whole thing.  This is where God is telling Job that Job does not know where there are storehouses of snow and hail or what it is that disperses the lightning.  It’s God that provide water for the crops and the animals.  Then God talks about even putting the stars into the patterns of the constellations.  And then right back to the rain, lightning and thunder.  I’m thinking that since God is talking about bad storms, the ibis is smart enough to fly around a storm and I guess the rooster is smart enough to know when it is morning, even when a dark storm hits as the sun comes up.”

I nodded, “I don’t know about the ibis, but some migrating birds will fly directly through a storm, basically surfing on the winds, and then fly out the other side of hurricanes.  If they fly too deep, they know to go down to the ground and wait out the storm.  But during things a little smaller, many birds evacuate an area, sensing where the storm is about to land.  I had friends who lived on farms and when the songbirds quit chirping, you better go inside for shelter.”

I continued, “Now in Psalm 147:16, God spreads the snow like wool and the frost like ashes.  Why do you think the psalmist said that about frost?”

Babs shrugged, “Frost makes those beautiful patterns.  I guess ashes from a fire that drop onto the ground can make a strange pattern, but definitely not a blanket like snow.”

I smiled.  I read 1 Kings 17:1.  “Elijah tells Ahab, king of the northern tribes of Israel, that there will be a famine, no rain until God says so.”  Then, I read 1 Kings 18:41-46.  “So, Elijah has just defeated the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.  He tells King Ahab that he hears distant rain.  This is unlikely when he sends his servant to the crest of the mountain, at least the military crest so that the servant can see far into the Mediterranean Sea.  He prays and the servant runs back and forth seven times before the servant sees a tiny cloud.  Then Elijah is given superhuman speed and he out runs the chariots of Ahab back to Jezreel.  So, God can withhold those things that are necessary to sustain life, and He can provide them in great abundance.  Since Elijah prophesied the start of the drought and the end of the drought, King Ahab should have known that God was the only source of such things, but King Ahab still worshipped his false gods.  He would not repent.  It was not long after this time when King Ahab and his family would be killed, and Queen Jezebel fell from a window and her body was eaten by dogs.”

Babs groaned, “You would have to bring that up.  I was wondering why we don’t have a dog.  I’ll bring up the question at a more opportune time.”

I laughed, “I have not had a dog here since the children were in high school.  But are you forgetting that we are still just a you and me?”

Babs rolled her eyes, “I am still working on that one.  You are a hard nut to crack, Harold Dykstra, but I will never give up on you.”

We kissed.  And then she began to laugh.  Somehow, I might be teaching this daily Bible study, but I saw the ‘control’ of the class starting to shift.  Maybe, I never had control of this situation from the beginning.

Credits

All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife.  We would talk about anything and everything.  And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.

When I thought of this title, all I had was a title.  I had no idea what would cause Babs to fret about the weather.  I awoke the next morning to a moderate rain that ate all the remnants of snow by lunchtime the next day.

An old boss of mine married a woman from Thailand who had never seen snow before.  We had a project in late January just north of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.  Our first night at a nearby hotel, we got about six inches of snow.  To fully understand the concept of snow, my boss encouraged his young wife to make a snow angel next to the hotel.  Then, when I arrived at the hotel, I was about to go in the double doors at the hotel entrance when I was hit by a snowball and my hat went flying.  As I chased my hat, I heard the boss’ wife laughing. “You’re right!  That was fun!”  By the time she loaded her next snowball, I ran into the building.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.