Doug Creamer: Reminding ourselves

Published 12:00 am Saturday, July 22, 2017

I called a friend recently and he asked how I was doing. “Hot,” I replied. We have been going through a pretty steamy spell lately. I could imagine the smile on my friend’s face when he asked me what month it was. Then he reminded me that it is normally hot every year during this month.

I have noticed that we have been having lots of rain this summer. I am not complaining — it has cut way down on my watering. Also the grass and the vegetable garden have been growing really well. While the rabbits, turtles and deer have all been enjoying things out of my garden, we have been enjoying some fruit from my labor, too. It’s like my previous pastor taught me many times, there is sowing and then there is reaping. I like both parts, especially the reaping of tomatoes, corn, beans, squash…

The good rains have also helped to keep the flowers growing well. We have lots of daylilies in my yard, and they have put on quite a nice show this year. They are about finished, but it is a daily treat to walk out in the yard to discover what is blooming.

All the rain has also helped the weeds grow, too. I hate weeding. Even though I do not sow weed seeds, I sure get a bumper crop of them. I have done some weeding, but a few days later they start to grow right back. Why don’t things like beans and tomatoes come up like weeds? I would let them grow wherever they wanted.

The last two Saturday nights we have gotten some big storms at our house. It rained cats and dogs. If we are home on a Saturday night, we often order a pizza. Thankfully the storms had passed before I needed to leave to pick up our supper. The really cool thing about the last two Saturday evenings has been that we had beautiful rainbows.

I saw people pulled off the road or standing out in the yard taking pictures of these beautiful rainbows. The first Saturday we had double rainbows and there was a third one really faint in the sky. I took several pictures myself while standing in the rain. While driving I saw the entire rainbow arched beautifully in the sky. At the same time when I looked the other way — we were having a breath-taking sunset. The clouds in the sky were gorgeous. The colors in God’s palette are innumerable.

God gave us the rainbow as a reminder and a promise that he would never again destroy the entire earth with water. So the next time you see a rainbow in the sky, remember you serve a God that keeps His promises. Actually, I think it is important that we remind ourselves from time-to-time that we serve a God who not only makes us promises, but He keeps them.

I taught children’s church last week, and the lesson was about helping the students understand that Jesus is God’s son, the Messiah. The people came to Jesus and asked Him to tell them plainly if He was the Messiah. He explained to the people that He had already given them the answer; they just didn’t want to believe. He explained that all the miracles and healings that He had done in plain sight were the evidence and proof that He was the Messiah.

They didn’t believe. Here we are over 2000 years later with all kinds of proof and evidence that God is real and that Jesus is the promised Messiah and still people don’t believe. There are still miracles happening today and people are getting healed of all kinds of things and yet people still don’t believe. I encouraged the kids to write down their prayers so they could build their own evidence that God still answers prayers. I think if people kept records of all the times God spoke to them through the scriptures, guided them in their decisions, blessed them, healed them or touched their lives in some way we would have tons of evidence that God is still active in our lives today.

I want to encourage you to remind yourself of God’s goodness and His many blessings in your life. If you think back on your life you will see evidence of God’s personal interaction with you. God is always working behind the scenes, but I believe He still provides powerful proof that He is there. He is still in the miracle and healing business today. Sometimes it just takes a rainbow to remind us of God’s goodness and faithfulness.