Rainfall. Dark heavy clouds billowing overhead in the western sky, sending shadows cloaking the horizon as a storm approaches. Young trees' willowy green branches dance in the strong gust of wind that begins blowing. The air is thick and humid. Little droplets begin falling. First one, then a second, then a third, falling faster one after another.
Rain.
I'm sitting here alone in a local coffee shop on a lazy Saturday afternoon. Warm lamplight brightens the cozy corners. As I sit here sipping on a cup of fudgy hot chocolate, I watch outside the window as a steady rain falls from the gray sky overhead.
I used to hate the rain. But it's been raining here a lot lately and I've gotten caught it in a lot lately with my broken cheetah-print umbrella.
"Let it rain. Let it rain. Open the floodgates of Heaven. Let it rain."
Most of us who have been in the church for any time are probably familiar with this simple worship song. I've heard it for years. But a few weeks ago, when I was taking the long walk across the parking lot to my red Altima after work, I could feel a rainstorm coming, ready to let loose its fury at any moment. And the lyrics of this song came to my mind.
In the Christian culture, we talk a lot about God's presence raining down. We sing about it. We pray about it. We compare His presence to rain. We pray that He will send His Spirit like the rain.
But the truth is, if we're honest, not many of us like the rain.
Rain is necessary, essential for life. We need rain. But rain soaks us through and makes us uncomfortable. It forces us to change into fresh dry clothes. We try to run away from it and seek shelter from it. Rain is oftentimes inconvenient. None of us (or few of us at least) really like being out in the rain. We don't like rain.
Yet we pray for God to shower His presence, His glory, like rain upon us.
How many of us though I wonder fully understand what we're asking the Lord for and are truly prepared for Him to answer that cry?
Like rain, the Holy Spirit is essential for life. Without Him, we can't live the life we were created to live. We need Him. Every hour of every day more and more. But when His Spirit comes raining down, sometimes we find ourselves wanting to run away from it rather than embrace it. Because it brings discomfort. It forces us to do things that are inconvenient in our busy little lives of schedules and plans. Because it brings change. Change from the inside out and forces us to take off our old garbs and change into something fresh, something new, something that makes us look more like Him.
But it rains the hardest in the midst of the storm, and many times, it's in the midst of life's storms that we get to experience His presence most in ways that we otherwise never would.
From my car to the coffee shop, I didn't bother with my broken umbrella. It felt unnatural not to. I got wet, and I cringed as I walked through the steady rain. It made my hair a little frizzy, it spotted my t-shirt, it speckled my glasses. The rain doesn't make us look our best when we get soaked, our hair volume grows, and our makeup smears. But so also the Lord's presence washes away the false appearance of our perfection and exposes our natural human state with all of its flaws and helplessness without Him. And we realize that we need Him more than ever.
As I finish writing this, I'm sitting outside on a wet park bench, feeling the water on my legs and on my arms, on my back, seeping through my t-shirt. Those willowy young green branches are spread above me overhead like a canopy and the gray skies have faded away into a crystal-clear vibrant blue as far to the horizon as I can see. Brilliant sunlight has burst through the clouds and is bathing everything with its warmth. The happy laughter and calls of young children are filling the air from where I watch them playing nearby, a good daddy watchfully guarding his little daughter on the swing set.
And somewhere after the storm and the outpouring of the rain, a rainbow, a symbol of God's faithfulness and promises, is painting the sky. The discomfort of the rain has passed and has left newness and hope in its wake. Life is beautiful and the world is in His hands.
