Excerpt from
The Jensen Family

"How are you doing on your report about thermometers and temperature?" Jason asked.
"Great! I found a lot more even than we got at your house. I'm writing it out for the third time so I can make sure it's my best."

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#51- Good ol’ Rain!

A Character story about gratefulness.

A few days after Jason and his new friend Jonathan began working on their science project on weather, they met again to compare their progress.
"How are you doing on your report about thermometers and temperature?" Jason asked.
"Great! I found a lot more even than we got at your house. I'm writing it out for the third time so I can make sure it's my best."
"Wow!" Jason commented. "I don't know if I've ever written a report over that many times."
"But how are you doing, Jason? How come you're not telling me anything that you're learning about rain?"
"I've been saving it as kind of a surprise. I wanted to get all I could before I told you."
"So tell me. What's so secret about it, anyway?"
"Well, you know you said you don't like rain because it ruined your camping trips last summer?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I found this neat verse in Psalm 145 verse 9 when Dad was reading the Bible to us the other morning. It says, 'The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.' Since rain is one of His works, it must therefore be good. So instead of just telling about rain, I decided to tell all the good things we have because of rain."
"That sounds interesting," Jonathan admitted. "And I know one right off. The rain waters the gardens and fields."
"Right. That's one. But it's even better than that. The plants need nitrogen and the air is eighty per cent nitrogen. The rain takes the nitrogen from the air to the plant roots to fertilize them."
"Huh. That's a neat plan, isn't it? Oh, and I thought of another one. On a hot day, the rain does sometimes cool off the air. When we were camping, even though we couldn't get out much, it was better sleeping after the rain than it was the night before."
Jason nodded. "I was also thinking of a visit we made this summer to my grandparents' house in the country. Every meal they were praying for rain, not just for their fields but for something else. Know what it was?"
Jonathan thought a minute. "Keep the dust down? . . . uh . . . wash their car? . . . uh . . . water for the cattle?"
"You're last guess was the closest. They were afraid their well would go dry and then they wouldn't have water for anything. And digging another well can be expensive! They said if the Lord doesn't put the water into the ground from time to time, they can't expect to draw it out."
"I should have thought of that one," Jonathan said. "Before we moved here, we lived on a farm and a year ago we had a real drought. Everyone was praying for rain until finally it came. Then we had a thanksgiving service."
"That's interesting because when I looked up rain in the Bible, I found that when God sent it at the right time, it was considered to be a blessing from heaven. It says somewhere -I forget just where- that God would send the early and the latter rain on the people if they obeyed. My dad said that the early rain loosened the soil, and the latter rain watered the crops before the harvest. So rain to them was a gift from God."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. I shouldn't complain about the rain we had while we were camping."
"But wait a minute, Jonathan. I'm not through. I found that the rain also cleans the air. Did you know that a drop of rain cannot form unless it forms around a particle of dust? So a lot of rain takes a lot of dirt to the ground where we won't breath it any longer. Snow and other forms of precipitation do this too. And don't forget about the rivers. Without rain, the rivers would eventually dry up because all the high water would have run down into the ocean. Without rivers, a lot of our electricity would be impossible to generate."
"O.K., O.K. You've convinced me," Jonathan admitted with a laugh. "I promise not to complain about the rain again, even if it stops the ball game for Saturday night."
"Well, I hope it doesn't, but if it does, we can always think of others who are thankful for the rain because to them it might mean their food and water."
"Hey, Jason, I hope you mention some of the Bible verses you found that talk about rain when you give your report. I wouldn't want you to get in trouble, but I think it would be good to tell the other kids that the Lord gives rain because He is good, like it says."
"That's what I want to do, Jonathan, but I have to admit, I'm a little scared about it. I know some of the other kids will probably laugh at me. And if Mr. Parkinson doesn't like it, it may mean he'll make it hard for me all year."
"I don't think he's like that," Jonathan encouraged. "In fact, I want to finish my report by sharing what your father said about not being thermometer Christians. I wouldn't want to get a lower grade either, but I do think it means more when we give a lesson we learned from all these facts."
"And really," Jason added, "that's part of being a thermometer Christian- standing up for what we know is right, even if some others may not like it."
"Right. And it's a lot easier to stand for right together. After all, that's one thing that friends are for!"

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*Did I tell you that there are at least 2200 thunderstorms in the world at any given moment?
*Did you know the world record high jump for a flea is 7 inches?
*Did you know that 270 opossums at birth weigh only 1 ounce or 28 grams?
*Did you know that the Bible mentions rain 110 times?