BE the dew...wear the dew....

I've been working on a message for Sunday from Micah 5:5-15. Micah is a wonderful book - if a bit harsh at moments. There is a wealth of good stuff in there. I've been thinking about one small phrase found in this section, "...like dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass...." Micah describes what the "remnant of Jacob" will be like using that phrase. The idea in my head is that we are to be like dew from the Lord and like showers on the grass. But how can we do that? Or better, how can we BE that? What does dew do? It refreshes and cleanses the world. There are few things more invigorating than to walk outside early in the morning and walk barefoot on the grass and feel the refreshing tingle of the dew on your toes! I love dew! It reminds me that a new day has dawned, that yesterday is over and there are challenges and joys to be experienced afresh today.

The only thing better than dew on your toes is the smell and feel of a rain shower when drought has been all you've experienced for the last several weeks. We recently had some rain showers come through here and oh what a relief! Rain smells so incredibly good, doesn't it? Both of these images share the idea of life and refreshment.

So, how do I BE dew? How do I BE a rain shower? I guess the easy answer is to be a person who refreshes others. What does this look like? I'm afraid to say - I'm afraid to realize that too often I am the drought rather than the shower. But, I'll take the risk and answer the question regardless:
1) I am a shower when I comfort you in your pain.
2) I am dew when I hold you harmless in your sin.
3) I refresh when I honor your diversity.
4) I renew when I allow your joy to run unhindered by my fear.

You may be asking - "You think you can do all of that, huh? All by yourself?" No, I am nothing but sere desert without the overarching rain of God's tender Spirit within me. The preamble to all of the above is - "When I am connected to God's mercy...." Too often, I add to another's pain or judge a person in sin or disrespect those different from me, or allow my fear to have it's way. I do that when I am connected to the darkness without rather than the light of God's grace within.

Why do we run from God's Spirit, when all He wants is to refresh and renew us? What is it within us that draws us away from God's mercy? Fear? Idolatry? Pain? And yet, in the dew of His presence, are not all of those taken away? Will God not replace fear with love, idolatry with His abiding presence, pain with comfort? Of course He will...and yet we run.

To be dew, I must be connected to God. Help me, Lord, in my disconnectedness!