Elijah and Scrabble

I felt like Elijah this morning.

 

"Lord, you know how much we need rain, and You know that our food is shriveling and dying."

 

"Benjamin, don't forget to play B flat with the right hand."

 

"Our rain tank only holds a few inches of water."

 

"Yes, Olivia, four sets of six is twenty-four."

 

"Is that a cloud on the horizon, God?"

 

"Good job, Katherine!  That is an S and it says sssssss."

 

"You are in control of the wind and the rain."

 

"Sarah, what were your words per minute in typing today?"

 

"Are those really dark clouds blowing this way?"

 

The rain began to fall, we could see it coming up the hill and hear it as it pounded the leaves.  Life-giving, tank-filling, plant-nourishing rain.  It didn't last very long, but it was enough to bring the level of the tank up a little bit.  I didn't even think about the clothes hanging on the line until the rain had finished and Aaron mentioned our dripping garments.  Thank You, Lord, for the gift of rain.

 

 

 

This evening, our family celebrated the birthday of Alfred Butts (1899), the creator of Scrabble.  From the Teacher's Calendar:  "Alfred Butts was a jobless architect in the Depression when he invented the board game Scrabble.  The game was just a fad for Butt's friends until a Macy's executive saw the game being played at a resort in 1952 and the world's largest store began carrying it.  Manufacturing of the game was turned over the Selchow & Righter when 35 workers were producing 6,000 sets a week.  Butts received three cents per set for years.  He said, 'One-third went to taxes.  I gave on-third away, and the other third enabled me to have an enjoyable life.' "  We taught the kids how to play Scrabble and enjoyed brownies while our minds twisted the tiles into words.