Rain

Do you like rainstorms? I love 'em. I get all squiggly inside when I feel the suspense before a downpour. Like when you're at the top of a roller-coaster, and you're weightless for a split second...except with a storm, all of creation is weightless for however long it takes the clouds to come, billowing and raging.

I couldn't fall asleep the other night, and decided to observe the rain instead. Crawling to the window, I looked and allowed my eyes to adjust to the unaccustomed darkness. Everything was gray and a very dark, dark green. The light from surrounding houses cut through the trees, giving the "ray" effect you see when walking through a forest. But the light was silver, drenched with newness.

I love the trees in Sydney. They are soooo BIG!! I gazed at them in the dark, their dusky silhouettes lurching in the breeze. It was a bit scary...

Such a tall, proud thing, with roots deep in the soil, its arms reaching towards the heavens! Yet for all its strength, it was being whipped around, forced to bend, forced to move along with the wind and the rain.

I thought about my life. I ask God to grow me, to shape me, to teach me to love. To renew my mind, to refresh my spirit. And He does. Sometimes, it is an unassuming mist of love. A comfort that surrounds and seeps into my skin. Other times, it is a kind, gentle sprinkle, each raindrop a whisper of promises. Yet, in other cases, it is a storm. It is an arch-my-back-lest-I-break wind. A power that calls me to bend, to humble myself and acknowledge that I am not in charge. And yet, all the while, the rain pours. It hits every nerve, it bleeds into every crack of me. And with it, comes life. With it, comes a strength to persevere amidst the turmoil.

After the storm, the dead leaves that were once caught in a tree are swept away. Dead branches tear off. Withered leaves disappear, allowing the new fruits to prosper. And the rain sinks deep, deep into the roots, allowing the tree to grow and provide shade, food and shelter to so many creatures.

The first verse of one of my favorite songs, How He Loves, says:

He is jealous for me

Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree

Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy

When all of a sudden, I am unaware

Of these afflictions eclipsed by glory

And I realize just how beautiful You are

And how great Your affections are for me

He loves. Oh, how He loves! I hope you can see how God loves you. It never makes sense while we're in the storm. Only hindsight provides us a clearer answer to "why". And sometimes, not even then. But God says He is good and that He will never stop doing us good (Jeremiah 32:40). He promises that. That's all we need to cling to, to dig our roots into.

I suppose the soil is important as well, since a tree that is not well-rooted can easily be ripped up. But that's a whole 'nother analogy... :)