A good rain
By Charles Christian
The popular saying goes, “Into every life, a little rain must fall.” The Bible puts it this way: “God causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).
The point is that life will not always be filled with sunny days and gentle breezes. Sometimes the storms will come, even when we are doing all we can do to be true and faithful to God and our other relationships.
People who grew up around farmers know that all rain is not bad. Most often, it nourishes and prepares the soil. Rain cools us down and causes us to pause. Growing up in a small town in East Texas, I remember my grandfather and my father taking extra time to just watch the rain come down. Their faces reflected a sense of calm and peace as the water covered the parched clay.
Strong rains can also be destructive, of course. The waters can cause boats to capsize and roads to flood. Big rain storms are often categorized among the many “natural disasters” that can cause havoc in our world.
These rains aren’t punishment, though. They are just the way things are. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it floods and whether these rains are good or bad often depends on one’s perspective. The little girl who prays for rain for her family’s crops celebrates the raindrops, while across town a little boy who prayed for no rain so that he can go to the circus is disappointed. The rain didn’t favor one or the other. The rain just came.
People of faith, like the crops and plants, can grow through the figurative rain and storms of life. We can learn to prioritize our relationship with God and with others when the rains pour. We can give thanks for the good things the difficulties in life produce, things like perseverance, patience and courage. These are gifts that seem to come most fully when we are faced with difficulties.
We can also trust God through the rains. We can trust that God is not seeking to destroy us or punish us. Rather, God, like the rain, is there. And because God is there, we can find some good, even (especially?) when it rains.
