Rain Barrels, Well-Water, and The Word of God

 

The Wisteria, Grape Vines, and Honeysuckle Arbor  

Water is life.

Perhaps where you live, there is almost too much water. But in our high desert home, the entire ecosystem suffers without enough rain or snowfall. In dry years, we have more wildfires, and the big predatory animals like bears, mountain lions, and coyotes, come closer to our homes in search of water, and in search of prey, like deer, who also descend when there is not enough water in the high places.

On our property, we are blessed to have a strong well. It’s been providing us with ample water for years now, and seems to be part of an underground waterway that is constantly replenished. When we can, however, we do try to save the rainwater. It’s supposed to be good for your garden, and we try to use it up before resorting to well-water.

The Grey Rain Barrel 

The Flowering Rose Rain Barrel 

We have four rain barrel stations around our house. The rain flows down off our roof into our seamless rain gutters. Then it’s diverted into four outlets, where it pours down 4 rain-chains into our rain barrels. The rain barrels are often up on blocks so that any overflow can flow into a lower overflow barrel. If the overflow barrel becomes too full, we run a hose out to the river of rocks and the rest of the water is diverted there.

The Morning Glory Rain Barrel (Morning Glories Coming Soon!) 

We call the wash “the river of rocks,” (which is why I named this blog, “Rockriver Hill,”) but in truth, the river of rocks is really just a highly effective drainage ditch. It slows rainwater-induced erosion, and helps the rainwater sink back into the earth on our property. Theoretically, this might even offer a small protection from wildfires. My Father-in-Law designed the river of rocks many years ago to follow the natural water-flow of the three hills our property is situated beneath. During heavy rainfall years, the river of rocks slows the waterflow enough that we don’t lose all our dirt out into the road.  

The Outlet of the River of Rocks

Water storage is expensive, or we would probably try to save more of the rainwater. There is easily enough rain to water my household garden all year round, if we had a cistern big enough to contain it all, and a system making it possible to water easily. We don’t…yet. But even the 8 barrels we have around the house still usually give us enough rainwater to last us until May or June. Then, if we want the garden to continue to grow, we must draw on the well-water.

The Lord directed me to Isaiah 55 a few days ago. There is a beautiful passage in that chapter that compares rainwater to the Word of God.

Isaiah 55:10-11 says,

  ¹⁰ For just as rain and snow fall from heaven
and do not return there
without saturating the earth
and making it germinate and sprout,
and providing seed to sow
and food to eat,
¹¹ so my word that comes from my mouth
will not return to me empty,
but it will accomplish what I please
and will prosper in what I send it to do.”

If the Word of God is like rainwater- essential to our well-being, to our growth, to our spiritual food, then it is essential that we must be reading the Word of God as often as possible, just as I water my plants as often as possible.

Without water, my plants will die. Without the Word of God, the human spirit dies. We need to store up His word in the rain barrels of our heart, and drink deep from the well-water provided by our Bible-teaching, and Bible-believing churches.

Spring has sprung here on Rock River Hill, and thanks to lots of watering, we see a miraculous difference between the March garden we planted in hope, and the garden of today that has germinated and is growing rapidly thanks to the longer sunshine hours. We also give thanks to the Lord for providing us with both rainwater and well-water.

March Garden 

May Garden