We were driving through a downpour when my daughter exclaimed, “I don’t like rain. The police should lock it up and throw it in jail!” All that changed in a matter of minutes after we told her rain brings flowers, which means her birthday is coming soon. After that, she wasn’t complaining, but sighing with contentment at the sight of the deluge.
Sometimes we look so long at the rain, we forget the good it brings. We see how it hinders us from the days’ agenda, how it slows traffic…how it blocks our view of the sun. Our mouths utter complaint after complaint when the weather fails to do our bidding.
It’s interesting to think that for every person praying for sun, there’s a farmer praying for rain. The farmer sees things from a different perspective. He understands that an abundance of rain yields an abundance of crops, just as my daughter came to realize that an abundance of rain yields an abundance of flowers, promising a soon-coming birthday.
What a difference a change in perspective makes! A life without rain is a life without life. Nothing grows without rain. Nothing lives without rain. As much as it may disrupt our plans, much more would be disrupted without it.
When trying circumstances come like rain into our lives, we need a change of perspective. The rain’s not here to devour, it’s here to bring life. If you’re in the midst of a storm, just wait it out…and believe. New life will spring up in due season.
Photo Credit: Freesia in the Rain | Flickr – Photo Sharing!
i buried hope long ago
It’s easy to take things for granted—like snow in the wintertime. Out here, it’s as expected as the turning of the calendar from December to January, to February. Expected, but not guaranteed. Just like the precious time we have with our children. The more I realize how quickly the snow melts away, the more I want to treasure each moment before it, too, melts away.
A forecast of sixty degrees and sunny does not make for a happy Midwesterner come Christmastime. We grow up expecting snow as some sort of holiday birthright, our desire for it so great we’ve made it the theme of several songs—though we must admit it’s somewhat contradictory to string Let it Snow, White Christmas, and I’ll be Home for Christmas in the same playlist. Do we really want another Snowmageddon if we’re trying to hit the roads or catch a flight home? That white Christmas we’re dreaming of might mean we won’t be home for Christmas after all. Although this year, it looks like we’re getting more than what we asked for.
This Life & Beyond 
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