Let’s talk about the weather. Why not? Everyone does. It is hard to meet very many people in any given day when the subject of the weather doesn’t come up. People like to talk about the weather. Here is why I think that is.
First, the weather is a safe topic. It isn’t polarizing. You aren’t likely to make someone mad at you when you discuss whether rain is in the forecast for tomorrow. Second, it is interesting (at least to some people). This is especially true if you live in an area where the weather changes often. And third, the weather affects us all. You might have to change your plans for the day based on what the weather is going to do.
I have a theory about this. The older you become the more concerned you are about the weather. I don’t hear many young people talk much about the weather. When I was a child I didn’t care about the weather unless it directly affected my planned activity for the day. In the winter I cared deeply about the snow forecast because snow or freezing rain meant we got out of school. Any other time of the year I only really cared about the weather if there was a possibility of an outside activity like a baseball game.
There is some evidence to back this theory up. In 2018 a survey was taken asking people of different ages if they had watched the Weather Channel recently. The first age group surveyed was from 18 to 29 years old. About 20 percent of them said yes to this. The next group, ages 30-49, had a percentage of 28. And of the 50-64 year olds surveyed, over 40 percent said they had watched the channel recently.
What makes the weather so interesting? Maybe it is because we don’t really have much control over it. But I think the big reason is that it affects our mood. Many of us just live better with more sunlight. If the weather blocks out the sun then we can suffer. Here is a list of the top 10 friendliest countries in the world, made in 2023. See if you can detect a pattern in them.
Brazil
Phillipines
Greece
Indonesia
Portugal
Columbia
Oman
Costa Rica
Mexico
Taiwan
What do you notice about each of these? They are all in warm weather climates.
So let’s talk about God in connection with the weather. Do we think of God as some kind of “divine weatherman?” Don’t laugh. I bet a lot of people from the Old Testament did. Remember the plague of hail on Egypt?
Exodus 9:13-29
The Plague of Hail
13 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning, confront Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me, 14 or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. 15 For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. 16 But I have raised you up[a] for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. 17 You still set yourself against my people and will not let them go. 18 Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now. 19 Give an order now to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every person and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die.’”
20 Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord hurried to bring their slaves and their livestock inside. 21 But those who ignored the word of the Lord left their slaves and livestock in the field.
22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that hail will fall all over Egypt—on people and animals and on everything growing in the fields of Egypt.” 23 When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt; 24 hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation. 25 Throughout Egypt hail struck everything in the fields—both people and animals; it beat down everything growing in the fields and stripped every tree. 26 The only place it did not hail was the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were.
27 Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. “This time I have sinned,” he said to them. “The Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. 28 Pray to the Lord, for we have had enough thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don’t have to stay any longer.”
29 Moses replied, “When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the Lord. The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the earth is the Lord’s. 30 But I know that you and your officials still do not fear the Lord God.”
It seems like “diving weatherman” kind of fits the description here. Have you ever prayed for rain? People have been doing it throughout human history. Native Americans had rain dances. One culture in South Africa crowned a rain Queen who presided over the annual ceremony to bring the rain. And we have special prayers for rain in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Everybody prays for rain.
But is there a problem here? If God controls the weather, and your weather is lousy, what does that say about you or your community? Are some places more favored than others? Is bad weather a punishment of sorts?
What if this all boils down to control? Many ancient religions existed so that people could explain things that had no other explanation. “If we can’t understand it, it must be divine.” The ancient Egyptians didn’t understand the sun (neither did anyone else back then), so what did they do? They had a “Sun God”, of course. My guess is that this is why so many belief systems were polytheistic. There was a god for everything they didn’t understand.
But I have a huge problem with this way of thinking. Is it right to define God based on our own level of competence? Does God only exist in the things that we have no control over? What if we were able to control the weather? What if we could flip a switch and make it rain anywhere we wanted? Would we still pray for rain then?
Here is the real question: Is God really the center of our lives if we only look to God for the things we think we can’t handle?
Why not think of God all the time, regardless of need? Why not have God in the forefront of our minds regardless of whether or not we have a problem handled?
Imagine a man who doesn’t know how to fish. Then one day a fisherman comes up to him and teaches him how. What will the man do then? Will the man turn his back on the fisherman and say “I don’t need you anymore?” Or will the man, grateful for the gift he has been given, say “come fish with me and I will celebrate the gift you gave me?”
What do you think God would like us to do with our progress in this world?
God Bless