

For over forty days, Dallas had temperatures over 100 degrees. For forty days, and then some, it did not rain. The earth split open like a jigsaw puzzle glued to lycra. But at midnight, when I disembarked from the Chicago flight to Dallas last night, I saw the lightening in the western sky. The air hung heavy and for once I didn’t worry about tornadoes.
This morning, as Bethany and I took Hannah to Kindergarten, they stuck out their tongues to catch the mist. By ten, the sky had darkened, and then it rained. It’s a soft, slow rain that blankets the grass; it will not flood the bayous like a summer storm in Houston. Nor will it stop the sickly yellow leaves from fainting off the trees. But it is enough—enough to pull me out of an air-conditioned stupor and join the voices of a great multitude that sounds like rushing waters and peals of thunder: the Almighty reigns.