We’ve had a crazy few days on our macadamia farm. 480mm of rain overnight, and 200mm a day later had our dam overflowing, our usually 6m wide creeks roaring at 80m wide and one of our orchards of macadamia trees a metre deep in water! The sound of water rushing, frogs croaking and cicadas chirping (let’s rather say – screaming!) is still deafening.
Our livelihood lies in macadamias, and the harvest season is about to start. The nuts fall to the ground when ready and we harvest them by machine. Had our nuts dropped already, we would have lost most of our crop. But by God’s grace, they are still hanging happily in the trees.
It can be stressful sitting in the house or shed, watching the seemingly never-ending torrent stream from the sky, knowing that damage is occurring, and helpless to intervene. We have a very big clean up job ahead, as the waters washed newly slashed grass, logs and debris up against the trunks of 1000 of trees. This will be a mammoth undertaking of hand removing heavy piles of rotting grass and logs and carting it all away.
We’ve had a number of floods on our farm over the years. What we’ve learned is to relax and trust The Lord.
“Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”
Matthew 6:27
We can survey the damage later, and set to work cleaning up when the sun is out. In the meantime, we can choose to be thankful. Thankful for time not being able to go anywhere. Thankful for a roof over our heads. Time to spend on some indoor hobbies that we don’t get to because we are mostly working outdoors on the farm.
Lesson learned
There is a valuable lesson to be learned here. What good is it for our children to see us stress and worry instead of enjoying watching the rain with them? Be thankful with them that we won’t run out of water to drink. Admire God’s power and might in the weather. Demonstrate a trust that He is bringing this rain for ultimate good. Who knows the needs of our Earth better than He? Enjoy drinking hot chocolate, and playing board games, or teaching a new skill. Relish the time to read stories, draw pictures or do a family puzzle. When my children were young and we had torrential downpours, they would be itching to get out into all that water. I would wait until an hour before their bath time, and run a full warm bath. Then I would let them loose outside with as little clothing on as possible. (This is Queensland, Australia – so it’s not cold!) They would run under the overflow of the gutters, splash through puddles, and jump on the trampoline in the rain, paint themselves with mud, and rinse it all off again. When they came to the door with teeth chattering, they stripped their clothes off straight into the washing machine and climbed in the warm bath. Even better, would be if I joined them for a minute, ran in the rain, or splashed in some puddles.
As mums we can get so serious about life that we forget to laugh and play and be silly with our children.
My grown children have wonderful memories of body boarding down rivulets in the garden and splashing about in the mud. These are the things they will remember. They never remember that you hadn’t dusted for a week!
When life gives you lemons, don’t put on a sour face….use them constructively!
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.”
Phil 4:6 (NLT)
Maybe this isn’t an interruption or convenience after all. Perhaps it’s the Lord giving you different opportunities.
God’s intention in the interruption
I am aware that we don’t all live on farms, and perhaps it never rains that much where you live. But unexpected situations, minor or major will definitely crop up in our lives. How are we going to deal with them? Let’s model to our children to cast our cares onto Jesus and thank Him for all He has done! Perhaps this is not the interruption after all. Perhaps this is His INTENTION.
Blessings in the storms
And once the rain cleared to a drizzle and I could go and check on our cattle, a wonderful sight awaited. A new little calf had been born right in the middle of that cyclone. Often blessings emerge in the midst of the storm!
