Cultural blindness
How much does culture count?
A couple of years ago I went to a day long conference. It was raining. It was the first rain for maybe eight months. This was not a case of showers, but clouded in, constant, gentle, all day rain. We Adelaide natives felt like we were walking on air! After continual drought, it seemed life was beginning again.
Our guest speaker was a native of Scotland. She spends a fair amount of her life on an island off the coast. She had noticed the buzz. It was inescapable. We were all talking, wondering if this was the end of the drought.
After lunch she said, "Remember those verses where it says God causes the rain to fall on both the righteous and sinners alike?" I've just realized that I've always thought that was talking about rain as a bad thing; God causes ill to come upon the righteous and sinners alike. We get so sick of it in Scotland. I never realized just how good and welcome the rain could be!
Andrew Prior
