Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

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

One day last week, Babs let me know that she liked a clean-shaven man.

This week Babs was bored.

Babs sighed, “Well, Harold, I have already had my morning walk and my shower, all at the same time.  Now what?”

I shrugged, “Do you want to take a nap?”

Babs huffed, “Harold, we just ate breakfast!”

I smiled, “You could go check on Sugar.”

Babs replied, “Sugar is a smart dog.  She is in her dog run on the house side of the run.  She refused to get into the rain.  I did not have her company me during my walk.  I think she’s smarter than I am.”

I laughed, “I think you are pretty smart, Babs.  But you said that you took a shower while walking, did you wash behind your ears?”

Babs sighed, “Harold, you are being silly.  I had to take a shower after I got back.  My hair was soaked, and I had to wash my hair to keep from getting a tangled mess.  I see the stupid look on your face, but that’s the truth.  I didn’t think about it, or I would have gotten a hat or I could have worn a hoodie.”

I shrugged, “Sorry, Babs, but the rain falls on the good people and the bad people.  ‘He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.’ (Matthew 5:45b).  But we need rain. ‘He provides rain for the earth; he sends water on the countryside.’ (Job 5:10).”

Babs growled, “Who said that in Job?”

I smiled, “Babs, it was Eliphaz.  Just because he was prejudiced, and his interpretation of things was way off, it does not mean he was an idiot.  That is what is so difficult in reading what the so-called friends are saying.”

Babs scrunched her nose, “Harold, when did rain first fall on the earth? ‘And no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for Jehovah God had not caused it to rain upon the earth: and there was not a man to till the ground;’ (Genesis 2:5).  So, there wasn’t any rain in the Garden of Eden.  Things just lived without that.”

I laughed, “Babs, you almost answered your own question.  When God pronounced the curse on Adam, He talked about the thorns.  But the truth was for Adam to have food, he had to till the soil.  He had to make tools to till the soil.  ‘In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.’ (Genesis 4:3-5).  For Cain to have fruits of the soil, he had to have grown them.  And we can assume that there was rain.  It probably started right after the banishment from the Garden.”

Babs groaned, “But, Harold, the next use of ‘rain’ in the Bible is at the time of the flood.  Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.’ (Genesis 7:4).  But then, God gives the sign of the rainbow after the flood. ‘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).”

I smiled, “I have heard that some scholars think there was no rain until the flood.  It could be that no one on earth saw a rainbow, or may not have understood what the rainbow was, or God altered the atmosphere so that we saw rainbows only after the flood.  There could have been huge rainbows after the forty days of rain, but Noah kept the windows closed.  But somewhere in there, they had rainfall.”

Babs scrunched her nose, “But what about the rainbows in Revelation?  ‘And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne.’ (Revelation 4:3). ‘Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars.’ (Revelation 10:1).”

I shrugged, “The Apostle John saw something spiritual, and he assigned an earthly description.  But that does not mean that God’s glory that shines brighter than any sun could have water droplets around it that will refract the light to produce a rainbow, or it could be something spiritual, beyond the earthly realm.  The verse you read about how God will send His rainbow as a sign of the covenant to not destroy the entire earth by flood.  So, maybe God used that part of His kingdom in Heaven and copied it with the phenomena of water droplets refracting the light on earth.  If that is the case, the rainbow that John saw encircling the throne was more bright and intense than any rainbow we’ve ever seen on earth.”

Babs asked, “But thinking of rainbows and floods, we still have them.  What is the deal about the rainbow, if we keep having floods?”

I sighed, “No, Babs, the rainbow is a symbol that a flood would not destroy the world as it did in the time of Noah.  Only the eight on board survived.  Of course, they might have added to the eight, since they were on board for over a year.  And they had floods.  The prophets warned people that things would happen like a flood, meaning flashflood.  Those do not destroy the whole earth.”

Babs smiled, “But it’s like the people doing the weather, if there is only one hurricane that hits the USA this year, it’s a good year, but if it hits your house, this year wouldn’t be a good one.”

I smiled, “That is all true, and the prophets were not warning people of a flood.  They were warning of God’s judgment and how it would come quickly, like a flood.  ‘At the time of the end the king of the South will engage him in battle, and the king of the North will storm out against him with chariots and cavalry and a great fleet of ships. He will invade many countries and sweep through them like a flood.’ (Daniel 11:40).  ‘Judah’s leaders are like those who move boundary stones. I will pour out my wrath on them like a flood of water.’ (Hosea 5:10). ‘but with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of Nineveh; he will pursue his foes into the realm of darkness.’ (Nahum 1:8). ”

Babs asked, “I thought you were going to use Joshua.  That wasn’t warning of punishment like a flood, they crossed the Jordan at flood stage.  That is, God held the waters back. ‘Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge,’ (Joshua 3:15). ‘And the priests came up out of the river carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before.’ (Joshua 4:18).”

I said, “The point is that floods continue, but the next time God uses His wrath to destroy the earth, it will be by fire.  ‘By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.’ (2 Peter 3:6-7).”

Babs sighed, “But back to the rain.  In reading these verses, they must not have a word for precipitation in Hebrew.  ‘When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt;’ (Exodus 9:23).”

I said, “Babs, hail usually accompanies a strong thunderstorm.”

Babs laughed, “Harold, but what about burning sulfur?  ‘Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens.’ (Genesis 19:24).”

I snickered, “Babs, when it’s coming down from the sky, you have to call it something.  Oh, and Babs, the rain has stopped.  Do you want to go out and make a mud angel?”

Babs snarled, “Harold, then I’d have to take another shower.”

I sighed, “Okay, whatever you want.  I think I’ll take a little nap.”

Babs asked, “Did you say, ‘nap?’  All this talk about rain and floods has made me a bit tired.  And when we are done, we can take a shower together.”

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.

The morning I wrote this, I woke up with no idea what Babs and Harold would talk about.  It was raining, and the weather forecast was that it might not let up until sometime in the afternoon.

As it turned out, the rain stopped before I had this finished, so I don’t think we will need to authorize overtime on the ark.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.