This has been the strangest July in Kentucky. Cool. Rainy. Then cool and absulutely clear, like an October day in Florida. Then rain again. Then just plain cold. I consider 55 cold. Anything colder than that is completely unnecessary. But in July? They say it's been the coldest July on record, for as long as they've kept a record... more rain, too, than ever before. It's raining right now. It makes me wonder who's prayers are being answered. I was in Florida back in May, and all the lakes back home were drying up. Muddy puddles left in the middle of fields... docks standing out in scrubby grass, dry as a bone...big, hundred-year-old trees literally dying of thirst. A friend of mine raises cattle, and she and her dad were having to sell off a bunch of cows because there wasn't enough grass for them to eat, and they didn't want to keep buying feed for them. I prayed for rain; enough rain to end the drought, and fill the lakes and ponds back up. I admit I asked God to refrain from sending another hurricane, if possible; I figured that's probably what it would take at that point. I wasn't sure, so I left that up to Him. It started to cloud up the day I left, and I mentioned casually that I hoped the rain would hold off until my flight left. Dad laughed. It hadn't rained in weeks, he said, and it wasn't likely to start now. The following weeks in Florida proved to me that God answers prayers when and if He wants to - I'm sure I wasn't the only one praying for rain down there - and with a sense of humor. The first rain in weeks was something just short of a 'tropical storm', but they weren't sure what to call it, because it was too early in the season for a hurricane. It dropped rain all over the state, flooded some areas, and just kept on churning for about 4 days. I haven't kept track of exact details, but I don't think it's stopped raining, yet. I hope the lakes are filling up, and the old fishing village at Lake Pasadena can resume renting boats, and selling bait, and the cows can continue to graze peacefully in San An, and that the old treehouse tree will be around for another hundred years or so. And whoever is praying for rain here in Kentucky needs to stop.
