Now That's a Big Man

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.                                                                                ~John C. Maxwell

Emily and I were getting lunch on the table when Jonathan came in, urging us to look out the front windows.  We looked towards the east, beyond the one-acre lawn, beyond the corn field, and then saw it -- big sheets of rain, moving ever-so-slowly our direction. An awesome sight and one I've never seen before.  

It brought to mind Elijah's announcement of rain to King Ahab.  Three long years before, Elijah had told Ahab, king of Israel, a drought was coming as God's punishment for their idolatry. No rain, no dew, no moisture at all. Oh, how parched their ground was! The crops wouldn't grow. And through all this time the people blamed Elijah, while it was their own idolatry, their own love of themselves and sinful decisions that caused the famine.

How often have we seen this in our own lives and churches.  We make a scapegoat of one person, shout loudly their faults, what "they" have done and blame their own lack of vision, outreach or love on the very one God wants to use.

When I read the story again, I find it was Elijah that knelt in prayer petitioning God for rain. In spite of their sin, in spite of idolatrous worship and their hatred of Elijah, Elijah asked God to bless them.

Elijah sent his servant seven times to check the sky before he came back with the report of the cloud in the sky the size of a man's hand. Like the rain today moving toward us, the rains came fast.  Fast because a mighty man of God determined to return good for evil.

Now that's a big man.

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