Dew

These past two weeks, I have been pondering clouds and fog.  Dew has always fascinated me too.  God uses dew as another visual for us to learn about Him.

The word dew brings to my mind refreshment, renewal, invigoration, even life. In the natural world, waterfalls, streams, lakes, rivers, rainfall and snow are sources of refreshment for the plants and soil of the earth. Another source is dew. It is the moisture from a wet ground that travels up or moist air that journeys downward. Whether traveling up or down, the morning grasses are laden with dew when the circumstances are just right. “Dew will never appear while there is either heat or wind. The temperature must fall, the wind cease, and the air come to a point of coolness and rest — absolute rest — before the invisible particles of moisture will become dew to dampen any plant or flower.”   (from Mrs. Charles E. Cowman’s Streams in the Desert, January 30th)

He provides and cares:

When the dew settled on the camp, the manna also came down.  Numbers 11:9

That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” for they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat. This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Each one is to gather as much as he needs. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.'”  Exodus 16:13-16

So Israel will live in safety alone; Jacob’s spring is secure in a land of grain and new wine, where the heavens drop dew.  Deuteronomy 33:28

God uses the word dew repeatedly in His Word. Physically, we see it quenching the thirst of plants and crops. Just as the grass is rejuvenated by the early morning dew, God invigorates us with His love, His Word, His peace, His joy. We, too, must reach that still and quiet place in our being — that absolute rest — before the dew of God falls upon us. Our busyness, our rushing, our schedules keep us from that beautiful point. The quiet moments, the time in God’s Word, praying, sitting beside a stream in utter stillness, the lingering in the beauty of a sunset … these are the places when the wind of busyness ceases, the temperature of daily schedules falls, the air of worry and fear cools and rests. Then the sweet moisture of God’s love becomes dew to refresh our bodies, minds, and souls.

Ponder the words our Father invites us to savor for God promises to care for us in EVERY way:

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; not for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And who are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil not do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But first seek His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  Matthew 6:25-34

We are compared to grass — tender, vulnerable, momentary. Yet, in Matthew 6, we are reminded of God’s loving care for us.  Our vulnerability, our tenderness, our momentary stay on God’s earth should lead us to trust in His care, for God is our only hope, the Trustworthy One.

All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.  The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; Surely the people are grass.  Isaiah 40:6b-7

He refreshes us with His dew:

Let them fear You while the sun endures, And as long as the moon, throughout all generations.  May He come down like rain upon the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.  Psalm 72:5-6

The king’s wrath is like the roaring of a lion, But his favor is like dew on the grass.  Proverbs 19:12

Give ear, O heavens, and let me speak; And let the earth hear the words of my mouth.  “Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as dew, As the droplets on the fresh grass And as the showers on the herb.  “For I proclaim the Name of the LORD; Ascribe greatness to our God.!”  Deuteronomy 32:1-2 (Song of Moses)

The LORD renews His blessing to Israel, calling His people to return to Him:

I will be like the dew to Israel; He will blossom like a lily.  Like a cedar of Lebanon He will send down his roots; His young shoots will grow.  His splendor will be like an olive tree, His fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.  Men will dwell again in His shade.  He will flourish like the grain.  He will blossom like a vine, and His fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.  Hosea 14:5-7

The seed will grow well, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will produce its crops, and the heavens will drop their dew. I will give all these things as an inheritance to the remnant of this people.  Zechariah 8:12

Likewise, He calls us to Himself:

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”  Matthew 16:24

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.  John 6:37

Dew of Quietness

Drop thy still dew of quietness
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.

- Whittier
Source unknown
but retrieved from bible.org

Are you being refreshed?

LORD, I pray that I would know this absolute rest and that it will envelop me.  May I feel the precious moisture of Your heavenly dew refreshing me.  I want to know You, LORD. Teach me to be still. Teach me to ponder things of You.  Teach me to rest in You.  I do seek Your face.  Fill me with Your Word.  Moisten my lips that I may speak Your Truth.  Renew me, LORD, as never before.  O, Heavenly father, shower my heart, my mind, and my soul with Your heavenly dew. In the blessed Name of Jesus, Amen.