Rain or Shine

Yesterday, as I drove to visit my daughter’s church, I was welcomed into the day by a beautiful blue sky, the kind that reminds me of relaxing on a tropical beach. It was the perfect shade of blue that suggested God had carefully hand mixed the perfect hues early that very morning and spread them across the sky just to remind me of His continuing creative touch. The morning filled me with energy and an eagerness to see what the day would hold. It was especially easy to thank God for His goodness and adore Him for His handiwork. Worship that morning easily began long before I darkened the door of a church building.

Last week it rained. It was a long soaking rain that filled the day and the night with cool air and the continual sound of raindrops hitting the porch and foliage outside my windows. Some see the rain as a detriment and as the enemy of activity. It certainly stopped that day’s parade of walkers from their normal course on my street. It stops baseball games and barbeques, and is sometimes blamed as the reason people don’t go to church on Sunday. Although I have been known to pray for clear skies over an anticipated outside activity, I love the rain. I love hearing an evening thunderstorm beginning to boom in the distance and eventually move through the area. The sound of the rain on the window acts as a lullaby or becomes the background music for an evening of reading and reflection. I know that the wind clears out dead branches from my trees and the rain is regenerates the plants and nourishes all wildlife.

Today, expecting another blue sky, I opened the shades to see a gray sky. Gray days are usually “blah” days for me that make me work a little harder to get going and be productive. And when I fail to remember that the same hand that colored the sky that perfect shade of blue is the same hand that toned it down to gray, I miss out on celebrating the full range of God’s greatness. Psalm 135 begins by calling us to worship God, who “does whatever pleases him” (v.6) and “who sends lightning with the rain” (v.7). God is worthy of our worship on beautiful sunny days, restorative rainy days, and even dreary gray days, because He has something for us in each of those days. God is worthy of our praise on days that we feel joy, and on days when we feel surrounded by defeat, because He is there on all of those days, meeting us and offering us all that we need.

I hope you will see God in the good weather and the not-to-cherished weather. I hope you will find that He is there for you on your good days and not-so-great days, just waiting to connect with you and fill you with His love and grace. Can you find time to praise Him this week, rain or shine?