3. he brings the rain

I have lived in Southern California since June. Not once have I seen it rain, not even a little drizzle. I realized that here in California, people don't appreciate the rain as much as other people in different parts of the world. Most of the plants here, at least in the southern part, don't need a whole lot of watering so the southern phrase, "we really needed this rain, look at the poor trees" isn't spoken in the slightest. California people forget how to drive in the rain because of their lack of experience in "these conditions" and they don't want to go outside. It's kind of like a natural disaster here, like a tornado in Kansas or Hurricane in North Carolina, which is understandable because it happens so sporadically.

Front yard plants, not needing rain.

The rain.

I stayed in bed for an hour this morning listening to it, mostly because I know my dog Madison refuses to step foot outdoors if it MIGHT rain, let alone a full on pouring out of the sky. I woke up around 8:00. I felt like it was Christmas morning, and God had delivered me a gift. I miss the rain. 

There's something about it that makes laying in bed for "a little while longer" acceptable. 
It's comforting. It's replenishing. It brings life.

Is this how we view the gloomy rain in our hearts? The little pitter patter of trouble that seems to hover over our lives... Although the storms of this life are eventually replenished, we don't tend to lie in bed and enjoy them. As Sarah Young, writer of "Jesus Calling" often writes, make friends with your troubles. Do we do this?

³ "Let us acknowledge the Lord;
    let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
    he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
    like the spring rains that water the earth."
- Hosea 6:3

Foliage outside my door step

The rain isn't always fun. It slows down our day, it flattens our hair, and it makes your dog smell terrible. But remember, the rains of this life, hypothetical and non, bring healing and replenishment. 

I laid in bed able to enjoy this rain because I know what comes after. I have lived through enough of those pouring, drenched, monsoon-like times in life to know that right after, is the delightful smell of the asphalt. The skies open up and you look upon them as through you had forgotten what they looked lke. It brings wonder, amazement, clarity. Your troubles fall away, and a little flower blossoms. You look upon the flower and remember that the rain had to have come for such beauty to exist. 

The rain.