It's been a gloomy week on the Saanich Peninsula. True, there was an hour of "Sunshine" at lunch at SPPC on Monday, but by and large, we've been wrapped in fog, pelted with rain and bowed under lowering skies for the past seven days.
After our long and glorious autumn, the abrupt switch to rain was a bit of a shock, yet when the skies opened I couldn't help but think of that great chorus from Mendelssohn's Elijah "Thanks be to God, He laveth the Thirsty Land."
We live with such an abundance of fresh water it can be hard to relate to the desert people of Israel. But, this summer when water levels in the Cowichan River ran so low salmon couldn't reach the spawning beds and had to be carried upstream in trucks, alarm bells rang all over the Island. People in Crofton worried about their drinking water. Mills worried about their operations and workers worried about their jobs. We got a small hint of what the Isrealites endured thousands of years ago.
At the time of Elijah, in a land where water was scarce at the best of times, there had been a drought for three years. Wells and streams had dried up. Famine raged. Livestock died for lack of food and water. Scouts were sent throughout the land searching for even a few blades of green grass.
Into that desolation came Elijah, calling on God to send rain. And God answered him. The people of that time could imagine no greater blessing than dark clouds and thunder and lightening and a deluge of water. No wonder Mendelssohn imagined them singing out in joy.
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