Showers of Blessing

In his book, “In the Presence of Mine Enemies,” Howard Rutledge writes of being held for seven years in a Vietnam prison camp.  Frequently alone, cold, hungry, and tortured, he would recall Sunday School days in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Without a Bible or a hymnbook, he would try to rebuild from memory verses and choruses.  One night in the camp during a terrible thunderstorm, lightning knocked out the lights putting the entire prison into darkness. As the rain began to fall, at the sound of wave after wave of water, these once forgotten childhood words came to his mind: “Showers of blessing, showers of blessing we need! Mercy drops round us are falling but for the showers we plead.”  Rutledge later wrote, “The enemy knew that the best way to break a man’s resistance was to crush his spirit in a lonely cell.  In other words, some of our POWs after solitary confinement would lay down in a fetal position and died. All this talk of Scripture and hymns may seem boring to some, but it was the way we conquered our enemy and overcame the power of death around us.”  This old and familiar hymn, written by Major Daniel Whittle, reminded Rutledge in that moment of God’s promise “I will cause showers to come down in their season: there shall be showers of blessing.” (Ezekiel 34:26) 

His promises are ever true.  He is completely faithful.    Have a blessed week.  Miles of Smiles, Beverly