A New Day

How do you celebrate Father's Day when you've been unchilded?

When your own father and both your fathers-in-law are deceased?

There's still one father you can turn to, and that's what the Good Rancher did.

He cast himself into the care of his heavenly father, asking Him to show His love to him on this yet another sad day.

And he was not left unfathered.

The rain sputtered and spattered indecisively throughout the day; nonetheless, the gauge Sunday morning showed 9/10ths of an inch ... 

And by the evening it had quietly crept up to 1.4". 

(I have learnt that tenths matter.) 

He went to check the calf who should have died after having been attacked a couple of weeks ago by what the GR assumes was a coyote: he is recovering slowly but steadily each day, and this Father's day he seemed to have taken a giant leap forward. 

To push his heart to capacity, a beautiful foal was presented to him by Chopper, a horse others had written off as too small and not horse enough. 

Trooper is one of the most spectacular little colts in recent memory. His legs are long - almost as long as his mummy's - and yardstick  straight. He is silky to the touch, like all newborn babies are. His temperament is calm. He loves his mother, who reciprocates one hundredfold.

After church we went out to lunch with a couple of couples, both of whose kids were not close by. The three men talked of ranching and the fathers from the Bible Pastor Walter had mentioned in his Father's Day Quiz just before the sermon. Some of them had had quite a time of it!

After the Church @ Endiang service that evening we had an ice cream social: floats, banana splits, sundaes, waffle cones. Coffee and chatting. Celebrating Dads. 

It's not always easy being a dad these days, Pastor Allan had commented. And yet kids of all ages need good dads more than ever. 

So to the GR and to all those men out there who are dads or who are about to become dads, don't be discouraged; don't lose heart. Your job is to love your kids and trust God for the rest. Keep letting your light shine... 

And happy Father's Day! 

It's Raining, It's Pouring!

I spent Wednesday away from the ranch; when I left, the sky was overcast but there was not so much as a spatter of raindrops.

I checked in by phone periodically. Any rain?

No. 

What about now?

No. 

And then at 11:34 I received this picture from DJ, along with the words "Finally getting some rain!"

As my friend and I went about our tasks in Calgary we were almost blown over by some of the wind gusts. We heard of the tornado warnings and thought about the Good Rancher, who was making his way back from Lethbridge.

Finally, at about 8 pm, I was home. The first thing I did was check the rain gauge:

Half an inch! 

I was so excited. The air smelled clean. As I hauled groceries into the house the three cats clawed at the door, wanting to get into the brisk outdoors. Olivia decided that discretion was the better part of valour in this unknown weather pattern. 

Jack and Charlie, however, swooped out and hurtled around the corner, to be brought up short by the overflowing rainwater tank - I must confess that I was brought up short by it too. How does a mere half an inch fill a bone-dry water trough like that?!

When the excitement subsided, we all went back indoors. The GR joined us shortly thereafter; as he started to eat his belated dinner, he heard the first pattering on the roof.  Food was forgotten as he jumped up and peered out of the window.

That half inch earlier was merely a teaser. The rain had arrived in earnest now!

All through that evening and into the night it tapped out its persistent percussion on the tin roof drum above our heads.

I was getting ready to settle The Nine in for the night, and I didn't see the GR at one of his regular evening dozing spots in the living room. But as I went down the hall the light showed me a glimpse of that man lying relaxed for the first time in many months.

"I'm just listening to the beautiful music," he murmured.

I thought about the time I took him to a performance of Handel's Messiah by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus. I never sensed in him the depth of awe and joy I experience when I hear the magnificent old masterpiece. 

But this night, I finally got it. 

This was the GR's Hallelujah Chorus.

Finally the household occupants were all tucked in for the night. I filled the electric kettle and flicked on the switch. As the water started to shift and heat in preparation for my hot water bottle, I was propelled toward the front door. Opening it, I stepped onto the top step and felt the immediate impact of water and wind.

And in it I heard the still, small voice, a whisper, a caress in my ear:

This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. (Matthew 5:45, the Message) 

I stayed there for long moments trying to take it all in - the wind weaving through the rain, the scorched grass tentatively stretching its blades upward again, the certain knowledge that God loves us all.

And finally, I could breathe. 

Listen to the rain with me! 

I went inside to enjoy the deepest sleep I have had in a long time.

But the next morning I was awakened by a shout: "Check out the rain gauge!"

(This includes the half inch from the previous day's afternoon showers.) 

The wonder of it all!

A Cloud the Size of a Man's Hand

 It's past time to get to bed. 

Now I lay me down to sleep - I pray the Lord my soul to keep...

This evening I was watering the scant flowers I had bothered to plant in the Round-up Corral, some of them so scorched by another brutally hot day that as the spray from the watering can touched their petals they spat at me like water hitting a hot frying pan.

As I lugged watering can after watering can around this beautiful, desolate place, I couldn't stop thinking about Elijah. Elijah was the prophet of the Lord who took on the most evil of the kings of Israel to date, Ahab: the Old Testament book of 1 Kings chapter 16, verse 33 actually says, "... Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the Kings of Israel who were before him." In desperation for his nation to turn back to God, Elijah had declared that there would be no rain until he gave the word.

And now it had been three years.

All of that backstory to get to the part I was pondering, the part where God gave the word to Elijah that it was going to rain.

After some other pretty dramatic moments, recorded in chapter 18, Elijah sent his servant to study the sky and see if there was any cloud in it.

No. 

Check again. 

No. 

Check again. 

No. 

Again. 

No. 

On the seventh trip outside, the assistant reported that he saw a small cloud the size of a man's hand in the sky.

That was enough for Elijah! He sent his servant to tell the King to hasten home or he would be caught in the deluge that was about to hit.

And it was so. 

Dear Lord, tonight we have clouds in the sky over the Round-up Corral - angry, roiling clouds reluctant to release their contents, ready to punch anyone who dares challenge their authority.

Clouds bigger than a man's hand. 

The wind is throwing small objects up into the air in a blustering show of false bravado. 

The miniature pond in Jane's Nook has a waterfall that is clattering onto the rocks below, and the beautiful old stained glass window above it trembles slightly between its sturdy chain supports. The Good Rancher does his best to secure it. 

We have had 2/10ths of an inch so far this year. We have been hauling water for a month already. The livestock is hot and thirsty, looking for reprieve from this relentless heat. 

The forecast holds out hope for tomorrow; but it's been teasing us like a shiny object jerked repeatedly out of our grasp so many times in the past 30 days.

The GR waits and so I must go. 

If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord that He will make the clouds to shed a tear ...

Amen.