Mom ran across the kitchen floor, arms and fingers stretched out in front of her aimed at the sky, “Rain!”
“Beautiful Rain!”
Rain is beautiful to a farmer. Nothing grows without it.
Mom’s sweetcorn depended on spring showers, and we hadn’t seen it for a month. The sweet kernels we sold at our roadside market would be underdeveloped and tasteless without it. Because its sale provided school clothes and shoes for my older brother and me, sweetcorn was essential to our family.
Of the many memories I hold of growing up a farmer’s daughter, some of the most emotional memories are that of my parents’ reaction to rain.
Thankfulness.
Gratefulness.
Relief.
These days, my own family spends a lot of time on the farm. No longer our bread and butter, the farm is a connection to the past, and a place where we meet up with famlily and friends. It’s a place to share the goodness of God. The return to my heritage has me thinking like a farmer again. Though sunshine is my thing, I know without rain, nothing will grow.
Often the sunrise finds me talking to God, or more often, listening. Below you’ll see Friday’s sunrise, and a shot 30 minutes later, when the rain began to fall for the first time since the 21st of June. More exquisite than the sun’s awakening was the rain, with its glowing promoise of growth.
And so it is with us. We are naturally drawn to observe God’s beauty in the “sunshine” of our lives: We are attracted to celebrations and to quiet, and to the promise of each new day.
But sometimes God brings rain. He knows we need it. He knows we need it because, like the corn and the beans that surround us these days, we will weaken without God’s holy rain.
Rainy lives don’t seem beautiful to us at all, especially during torrential downpours, and I’ve known a few.
But God knows I grow most during stormy times, my perspective glued to the eternal, and my roots grasping for the one living water Jesus gives. Like a farmer then, I want to be grateful for the rain, rather, grateful for the growth I know will be mine. And I trust that God will cause the rain to sink deep into my life. And change me. And make something beautiful. That is His promise.
God, help me to yield myself to you whatever you may bring. I want to see your rain as for my good and the good of others. I want to listen during the rain to hear your voice.
God, cleanse me, heal me, and use your rain to make something beautiful. For I am Yours.
“God whispers to us in our pleasure, and shouts to us in our pain.” -C.S. Lewis
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, whoi have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28