Rain on Me!

In the middle of the night I awaken to a strange sound. In my sleep-fogged brain I struggle to identify the source of this soft sound. Plop…plop, plop, plop…plop. As my sleepy fuzziness clears, I realize I’m hearing raindrops hitting the roof. In an area that has suffered extreme drought for several years, this is an unusual sound.

From the warmth of my blanket-laden bed I travel to the dried land. Yards criss-crossed with cracks, lawns filled with brown, not green grass. Fields with stunted crops starved for moisture. Plop, plop. In my mind’s eye I see that thirsty land drinking each tiny droplet of life-giving moisture. Deep into the earth the moisture soaks, traveling to roots below the surface, reaching for water.

Only water can restore life to lawns gone dormant. Only water can change sickly-looking, yellowish green winter wheat into vibrant forest green. In my cozy bed I smile, imagining how the drops are slowly changing the landscape and allowing new plant life to flourish. Snuggling deep into my blankets, I drift back into a deep, restful sleep.

Just as the land cracks and crops wither in a drought, so our souls suffer from spiritual drought. Too often, when our souls are parched, we look for a flood; we look for a mountaintop experience to quench our souls’ thirst. But it doesn’t take a flood. It doesn’t take a mountaintop experience. The drought is broken one little droplet at a time.

Father God, let my soul be open to receive each tiny drop of spiritual moisture You send. Send Your life-giving rain into my heart, drop by drop.

John 7:38 “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

Rain!

I slept through it. The rain. After 25 days of 100 degree plus weather and extreme drought conditions, I slept through it. True, it wasn’t a heavy rain, but how I would have loved to stand in the refreshing liquid life, savoring the cool drops on my parched skin and deeply breathing the clean, clear air.

When I walked out the door at 8:30 in the morning, the sidewalk was wet and the dry grass no longer crunched beneath my feet. The rain-starved ground had guzzled every drop of moisture, leaving a springier cushion beneath my feet.

Driving across town that morning, I noticed the clouds. Instead of a clear blue sky with a scorching yellow sun, layers of white, gray, and black clouds dotted the sky, allowing filtered sunlight to shine down in gentler rays on the over-heated landscape.

In several spots around me, I eagerly watched gray streaks on the horizon, evidence of life-giving rain falling nearby, providing relief to yet another drought-stricken plot of baked earth. As I looked earthward, I noticed that the grass and trees around me already looked greener. Perhaps the green intensified because the sun’s light shone less fiercely, perhaps because the world’s dust and pollution had washed away in the rain. Either way, after such a long time of excessive heat and lack of moisture, my eyes greedily gobbled a green feast.

Just as the water from heaven falls on the earth and makes it green, so too the Spirit falls on mankind, making each of us an oasis in a land of spiritually thirsty people.

Father, let me be wide awake, ready to receive your life-giving Spiritual rain. May my soul drink deeply enough to allow the excess to spill over and water other dry souls.

Isaiah 44:3 “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.”