Well, for the month of February we were all hoping that the snow would go away! Now, it is the rain. Well, at least for me. We are having our Diocesan (church) convention tomorrow and Saturday and the forecast is for – yuck – rain! Time to move mountains, or at least clouds.
My favorite story about keeping it from raining occurred during our last trip down the Intracoastal Waterway in 1999 from Washington, DC to Tampa, FL. We had a 43’ Albin trawler that we lived on in DC when I was attending seminary. It was fun and we became known as “The Boat People.” We are called that to this day. At any rate, we cruised down the waterway to Charleston, SC and left the boat there while we drove over to St. Petersburg, FL for my ordination.
Thereafter, my spouse and I along with my mentor and friend and her spouse drove back to Charleston and picked up the boat for the remainder of the trip to Tampa. It was June and that time of year in Florida the rains come every afternoon. Most every day about 3:00 p.m. the clouds would loom dark and dreary ahead of us threatening a downpour for sure. And, each day I would stand up on the flying bridge of the boat (aptly named “Empyrean” which is Greek for home of the gods) and shout at the top of my lungs GO AWAY RAIN, GO AWAY. I would then wave my arms about like some maniac conjuring up I don’t know what. Good thing no one had a video of me.
Well, every day that I did this, the rain would go to the north of us, or the south of us, or anywhere except where we were cruising along. At first it was a laughable sort of thing. But after this went on day after day after day it became sort of an awesome thing – divine almost. We would all look askance at each other and wonder how this could be. Finally, our traveling companion’s spouse said, “You know, if this keeps up she’ll be impossible to live with!” We all laughed – but……it never rained on our parade down the waterway.
So, tonight and tomorrow I will stand in my yard and yell GO AWAY RAIN, GO AWAY! Who knows, maybe it will work again. Didn’t Jesus say that we can move mountains – if we believe? I believe! After all, I only want to move some water drenched clouds.