Out Our Way: I think it's gonna rain! - 1 Corinthians 15:51-58

Out our way, one can see for miles in all directions, provided one chooses to look. One of my favorite memories was on one of Charlie and my excursions on the Tiger Ridge to check on the herd. On this occasion we rode up on a slightly higher than normal ridge at the north end of the pasture. It gave us a pretty fair view of the area and Charlie pointed to a distant cloud further north and said, “It’s raining in Canada.” Yup — though the border was many miles away, from where we sat and cooled our horses, we could see rain falling in Canada. 

It seemed to me that the wind normally came out of the west and so it wasn’t a big surprise to me when Charlie pointed that way and said, “We’ll be getting rain tonight as well.” And off in the distance, sure enough, some dark clouds were slowly taking shape and headed our way. Most folks turn on the TV to get the weather report — me and Charlie just rode up a tall hill and looked around. 

Now some folks don’t believe in such things as just opening your eyes and looking about. They demand “facts” that suit their agenda. If some smiling person standing in front of a chart on TV didn’t say rain was coming, then they refused to accept the idea they might be getting wet. After all, those folks on TV are “professionals,” and even if they themselves aren’t real meteorologists, the stuff they report came from the “real deal” folks who know everything about weather. “Follow the science!” So what could two mere cowboys know about the weather?  

Of course, if they had asked the “read deal meteorologists” if Charlie and I were correct, they would have learned rain was indeed coming. You see, the “science” happened to say the same thing as Charlie and I. Their issue was not about what we were saying, but who we were to say it.   

Now, as Christmas draws near, you don’t have to be a professional forecaster to know that it will draw out some folks who need to scream that it is based on a myth and Jesus was either a fraud or a totally made up character out of a mid-Eastern fairytale. Source? They will claim there is no historical evidence of Jesus — false; read Josephus, the Jewish, not Christian, historian of that era for one — not to mention the eyewitness accounts of so many who spread the Gospel message. They will claim there was no Star of Bethlehem. What about the astronomical records of that time period showing there was indeed a “great light” in the sky around the time of Jesus’ birth?

Well, like those who would dismiss Charlie’s prediction of rain because he is not on TV, some folks are too busy being “right” to worry about being “correct.” But the rain came that day anyway — and as the Grinch found out, so does Christmas.   

Be blessed and be a blessing!

Brother John

The Rev. John Bruington is the retired pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Havre. He now lives in Colorado, but continues to write “Out Our Way.”