When God Gives Rain

WHEN GOD GIVES RAIN
by Kristina Jossund

We all dream of the sun…it’s light dancing all around us…it’s warmth caressing us

Those moments where we don’t need faith to believe that God is good, and life is full of His blessings.

Those times when our soul sings just because it can’t hold it in, and it feels like we can reach out and touch the Lord – He is simply that close.

But what about the other times? When the sun is hidden behind ominous clouds and the security of the sun’s language has been obscured by the deep roar of thunder and lightning? The times when God’s gift is the rain? 

What do we do with those times when we cannot see our Redeemer without faith?  When life has turned traitor on us and robbed us of our deepest joys?

What do we do with those hidden places when the knees knock together with fear over all the “could be’s” and the heart breaks over all the “has beens” and we find ourselves broken, drenched and cold to the core?

What about the times when there simply is. no. song.

What could it possibly mean when David cries out:

 “ If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” (Psalms 139:11-12)

How could a place so God-forsaken ever hold the light of His presence?

How can I ever trace His goodness through the pain of brokenness?  How can I lift my head to the Heavens to seek His smile when my failure howls its condemning voice in the wind of adversity?

And in those places that seem so hidden from Heaven’s view I find myself asking…what did our Christ mean when he said that He had come to give us LIFE, and life MORE ABUNDANTLY?

Did He mean that if I walk with Him I would only know the joy of roses and never feel a thorn?

Did He mean that I would be immune to the ravages of sin on my life and the life of all I hold dear?

Did He mean that I would have great blessing – only health, wealth, and good success?

Did He mean that the cross that He bore would be the last one… and that its’ shadow would never cross my path?

Or did He mean something far richer than that?

As my heart throws its gaze over creation, and traces the Father’s handiwork in nature, I find myself in awe of the stark difference between a land that has too much sun and one that has the gift of sun and rain.  I see the parched places and ugly bareness of a dry and thirsty land where no water is. I see an environment that has grown so hostile to life that the creatures hide in the sand, waiting out the deadliness of the sun’s unbroken rays.  The song of the nightingale, sparrow, and meadowlark is absent, only the screech of a vulture is heard in the echoing silence.  It becomes apparent that the land cannot bear up under too much of the sun’s life giving power, and that the blessing has become a burden of death to the living.

And then I look at the bountiful harvest of a field that has known the terror of the thunderstorm and has endured the pelting rain.  I drink in the reassuring sight of boughs laden with fruit and the signs of plenty all around.  I am refreshed by the lush colors of resplendent flowers and feel that I am on the shores of Beulah land.  And I know that to create such fruitfulness the skies have not all been full of light, and the days have not all been beautiful, but they have accomplished their work.

And I can see so clearly then, that to reject the storm is to refuse to let Him do His most beautiful work of all!  Storms clean the air, water the earth, and enable all of life to unfold to its maximum potential.

The crop never reaches maturity, the flower never shows her intricate beauty, the air would become toxic – if the storm never passed over!

The storm is not God’s punishment in my life – it is one of His greatest gifts!  It is His love saying, “Come near, My child – I want to grow you, I want to cleanse you, I want to produce life that will overflow to others through you.  I want to cultivate the soil of your heart so that there is much fruit that abounds to the glory of the Father.”

Perhaps that is why Christ does not just reveal Himself in seasons of light… He says in the Psalms that

 “ He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.  And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.  He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.” Psalms 18:9-11

He has not moved – He is as present in the darkness as in the light!  His purposes are as true, as unwavering, as full of hope in the raging storm as it is in the gentle dew drops of dusk. 

Perhaps the problem is with me – that I have stopped looking for Him in the storm – that I do not see the love of His hand and the provision of His grace just as clearly as I do when my eyes and senses are delighted by life. 

Perhaps I am too much like the disciples of old who found themselves shivering and shaking in the bottom of the boat instead of marveling that the very storm they were in was going to reveal their Saviour to them in a whole new way.  Their faithless, fear-filled eyes could not see that they would walk away from that day having watched Him walk on the very water that threatened to kill them and overcame every obstacle to get to them.  They would forever carry with them the confidence that He was the Master of the wind and the waves and everything else that would threaten them in life.

Perhaps if I fell back into all that He has revealed Himself to be in His Word, and all that I have experienced of Him throughout the beautiful places of my life, I would find that precious closeness that only comes when I am sheltered in the shadow of His wings.

Perhaps I would know, that life is abundantly good not just because of the good places – but because of the dynamics of His presence in all the places of my life.

And perhaps…if I can look up while the storm is bellowing with full force and can throw my arms out and embrace God’s gift of rain…perhaps then I will say with Paul –

Rom 8:38-39  “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nordepth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.