As I shuttled the kids off to school today, the rain was coming down hard. It was pouring over the curbs of our street and the ditches were beginning to get fuller and fuller. Once we were at the school, the kids quickly hopped from the truck and sprinted to the school doors. As I started to drive away, I noticed one little boy reacting quite differently to the rain than all the other middle schoolers that were rushing inside. You see, at our children's school, there is a daycare housed under the same roof as the grade 5 -8 children. As the Mamma struggled to get the backpack out of the vehicle, I watched as this little boy was twirling around in circles, with his arms wide open and his face turned up to the sky, just letting the rain wash right down over his face. Skipping along the fence, he seemed oblivious to the negative affect the rain was having on the others. He was just enjoying the coolness on his face and the trickles of water running down his cheeks.As I watched, I was reminded of our days living in B.C. Having lived in Saskatchewan for 3 years previous to that, the coastal weather in BC was drastically different than the dry prairie weather I had experienced. When the locals in BC were complaining about the long, dreary, overcast days in BC, my husband and I were embracing them. Newly married, the cloudy, rainy days meant time to snuggle into our one bedroom apartment and just be together. We loved going for walks and seeing the clouds hovering in the valleys. Or the clouds just clinging to the tips of the mountains, waiting to open up and water the earth. Like today here in Manitoba, the BC rains were generally gentle rains. Washing away the dust and business of life.
Today as I looked out at the little boy literally soaking up the rain, I was reminded again about perspective. This little guy was just loving the rain that was coming down - as compared to the teens who were racing inside to avoid the drops coming down! What a difference. As I look outside of my window now, I see how green everything is in contrast to the grey skies. Even my fish look more orange against the raindrops on my pond.
Sometimes God brings moments - raindrop moments - into our lives. Moments that make it difficult to remember the sunshine. Moments that cause us to crawl into ourselves and get cold and shiver. Some of those moments remain longer than others. Some moments turn into long chunks of time. We've experienced some of those moments. We've experienced some of those chunks of time. Our raindrop times will be different than yours - and not for a moment do I believe that your raindrop moments are something I can ever understand. But I do understand the struggle of perspective. It's not always easy to look out through those windows of life and see the raindrops clinging to the glass - or streaming down for that matter.
But today, I encourage you to look beyond the raindrops. Look past the dreariness of a rainy day and look through - out onto the other side. Try to think of the beautiful affects that this rain will have. The greenery that will emerge once the sun takes hold and grows those little flowers into blooming beautiful masterpieces. Not every day is a rainy day. But not every day is a sunshiny day either. We really do need both. We need both the good and the bad/sad days to really appreciate one from the other. We need both in order to give us perspective. We need rain to really be able to appreciate the sunshine. And we need the sunshine to really appreciate the rain.
I'm not sure the little boy I watched really cared if tomorrow was going to be sunny or not. He just twirled around in the rain like today was the best day ever!! He was soaking up the goodness of the day and not just making the best of it, but really enjoying it.
Even in our rainy moments of life, let's try to get that perspective. No matter how big the rain storm that has come our way, let's try to remember this, shall we?
Psalm 5:11
But let all who take refuge in You be glad; let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you.
Praying that your rainy day is filled with joy.
And because of the rain, I can't help but share this song with you. It is a song that was often played on our record player at home many many moons ago. Sung by the Medical Mission Sisters, it reminds me that the rain doesn't stay! Eventually those wet dreary days are gone, and the sun comes shining. Enjoy a little memory from my growing up days! :-)
