Send Down Your Rain

Today I just walked into the house after church. My son had turned on the water hose to let my shrubs have a drink. "They're dying," I lamented. And the we heard it--the sound of falling rain. Glorious rain. Thunder. Rain......so many days without it has turned my yard into a dust bowl with brown withered grass. My son went out fully dressed and danced in the rain, reveling in the cool shower--a welcome respite from the 100+ temperatures we have been having. It's clearing off now after only about 20 minutes. Not near enough, I sigh. Not near enough. Yet, who am I to question God about when it is enough?

Even as I speak it there are people in Oklahoma and Houston who are riding out flash floods and praying for relief. There are folks in the Carribean bracing against hurricanes. I could be one of them. So I will not grumble over the shower that has come or it's seemingly little effect on the drought. I will thank God for sending it. And enjoy it while it lasts. What is someone else's trial is my blessing. Lord, help me to remember that when I panic and worry about tomorrow. I am not forsaken nor alone. Those rumblings from the heavens are choreographed according to Your mighty will. You hold the world in your hands and my life is not insignificant to You.

As far as those spiritual storms go, help me to stop looking at the circumstances. Help me to see beyond today and whatever disappointment I might feel about how today is going.

I am not God. My thoughts are not His thoughts. I do not have the answers. And I am glad sometimes that I do not know all, for that burden would be so hard for someone like me to bear. If I knew exactly what trials I had left to face-- in my human frailty, I might just throw in the towel and walk away. But I must trust. I must learn to give myself over to Someone else's care.

If I am to grow I must accept the rain when it comes--I must get out there and dance in it, drink it in, and wash the dirt from my weary soul with it. Celebrate it, use it up, lap it up and count it all joy. I have so much left to learn about life God. I am so immature.

The Bible says the rain falls on the just and the unjust. We can view it as a trial. Or we can view it as a blessing. But we all know what happens when there is no rain...things begin shriveling up, withering, and dying. I don't want to die inside, God. I don't want to waste away in self-pity and bitterness. Send the rain if you must. The storms if you must. But just don't stop working on me, dealing with me, or teaching me. I need Your rain.

I need Your rain.