Rain Dance

Summer has danced into the South on the winds of perfectly spaced Spring thunderstorms, but every wise farmer knows drier days are waiting in the wings hoping to steal the show. Though cotton thrives in the scorching temperatures of the Missouri Bootheel, it thirsts for the cool fresh water that once covered the region in swamps and still flows far beneath the surface of the fertile soil. The farmer seeks to pull the drink from below to the parched plants on the surface of the land by stretching an oversized water hose of polypipe from one end of the field to the other. Dark clouds begin to swirl in the sky above. Thunder rumbles in the distance. Lightening flashes a few miles to the East. Giant raindrops plop sporadically to the ground. A cool breeze blows away the heat of the day...And a magnificent rainbow appears overhead. The work is completed in the perfection of grace amid the dancing laughter of giddy young farmhands enjoying the cool wet fruit of their labor.

The spectacular show of nature is enough to make one wonder if, perhaps, God is amused by the farmer's attempt to create rain from the dust of the Earth.