Let It Rain

(This was written yesterday, when I woke to unexpected rain…)

It’s raining.

As I sit here at my desk looking out at the parched ground drinking in every sweet drop of beautiful hydration, my heart sighs.

It’s a really big deal when it rains here.

We are in a drought and two days ago we experienced the scorching heat of 104 degrees.  That kind of heat that hits you in the face like an open oven door when you head out. The kind of heat that withers everything living that it touches.

Everyone was relieved when the temperatures dropped down to the eighties yesterday and the clouds began to roll in.  Afraid to hope that rain might be a possibility, we let ourselves bask in the cloud cover, that, if nothing else, gave us a buffer from the intensity of the sun.

Around here, we treasure overcast days.

I’ve learned to love the rain.

Strange, coming from a native of Washington State, who used to wish for sunny days to interrupt the run of clouds and drizzle.

It’s all perspective, isn’t it?

But I think it’s more than just wanting what you can’t have.

I think that having lived away from the Northwest for the past 12 years and residing in sunshine states, I can now fully appreciate the purpose and effect of the rain.

Even though today the skies are an ugly gray and the weather will make my job a little more frustrating, it’s a really good and necessary thing.

It’s refreshment.  

Drops from heaven meant to nourish and grow the ground and all it produces.

Drops that soften the hard, dry earth and clean the hot, stale air.

I can almost see brown spots in the grass turning to green.

And that makes the difficulty and dreariness of a gray day something to be celebrated and deeply valued.

Rain used to make me sad.  It used to discourage me.  I continually wished it away.

But I’ve learned to appreciate those drops from the sky as a blessing and not a curse.

What if we could look at life’s rainy days like that?

Those really, really hard and dreary days as something to see differently.

It really IS all about perspective.

What if we could see disappointments and pain as purposeful and effective not only in our own lives but for something bigger than ourselves?

What if we saw difficulty as the refreshment our soul needs to grow a little deeper, a little more connected to the heart of Jesus?

What if we could visualize our tears as the rain that will nourish our all-too-often drought-stricken hearts that need to be broken just enough to let those healing drops soak in?

The rain will come and then it will go.

But instead of wishing it away today, I’m going to turn my head toward the sky, open my mouth and taste the goodness of God and his divine purpose in every drop.

And instead of crying in that rain, I will smile.

I’m learning to love the rain….

Psalm 68:9 – You sent abundant rain, O God, to refresh the weary land.

Isaiah 45:8 – “Drip down, O heavens, from above, And let the clouds pour down righteousness; Let the earth open up and salvation bear fruit, And righteousness spring up with it. I, the LORD, have created it.”

Matthew 4:24-27 – Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.

Hebrews 6:7 – For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God….

Genesis 2:5 – Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the LORD God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.

The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to LET IT RAIN. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow