Doing the Rain Dance

We are currently in the midst of severe drought in North Carolina. It's one of the worst seasons of drought in the history of the state. As I was just gazing out the window from my desk, I noticed the lack of any vegetation, especially on the trees. This is the time of year when life should be budding again, but the only thing that's green is the new grass planted outside of our apartment building. Fortunately, we have had some heavy rain over the past couple of weeks, but the drought has been so severe, we're still categorized as being in severe drought, one notch below extreme drought.

The lack of life saddens me because I have always been in love with springtime. I love the new growth and the beautiful colors that God paints across the earth. There is a beautiful dogwood tree right outside of our window, which was blooming beautifully last year but has nothing yet this year. Right next to it is a tree with dried up leaves still left over from the fall and winter. Signs of life are struggling through, however, when I see a small tree or bush on the side of the road with tiny buds reaching for life.

I worry that, despite the "green" culture that thrives in our area, the recent rain will give a false sense of security and send people back to unnecessarily washing their cars and watering their lawns. When the drought was taking a serious turn for the worse last fall, residents of a local city actually complained when they had to stop watering their lawns because the drinking water reservoir was not going to last longer than three more months. I sincerely hope that they are smarter and "greener" this spring. If the green culture here doesn't get a little more serious we won't be seeing any green at all this year.