Rain falls.  Again.

The rain is falling outside, an answer to prayer for some—an annoyance for others.

I’m in the former category.

No, I’m not worried about wildfires, as my friends and family in the American West are.  Fire has devastated, and continues to devastate, the landscape out there right now.  Homes are burning. Livelihoods are scorching. Nature is being tortured. They are praying for rain.  With good reason.

In my home area, we’ve had summer rains along during the hot months, not as often as we’d like, but often enough.  The lawn still needs mowing, even now, as we approach Autumn.

No.  My reason for desiring the rain is a bit more intangible and less weighty.  Or, perhaps not. Less weighty, that is.

My soul is thirsty. 

It is.

Oh, not in the sense that I’ve missed the source of the Living Water that the woman at the well craved.  That fountain has satisfied my spirit for many years.

And yet, in this, the most desertlike of seasons many of us living today have seen, I find myself wanting—something I can’t quite put my finger on.

I know others feel it, too.

Cups of cold water are fine to quench the thirst when you’ve run a few miles in the heat, but over the course of the marathon, the body wants more.

Ah, that hits the spot doesn’t quite do it when the body is caked with dirt and grime, smeared over the pores with salty sweat.  When exhaustion bears the body down as if carrying the weight of all the world, a swig from the water bottle just doesn’t satisfy.

But, a summer shower or downpour, bounty from the skies—or more to the point, from the One who rules the universe—now, that quenches the body’s thirst!

I like metaphors.  The reader may have noticed that in my writing before.

Metaphors.  Mirrors that reflect a picture of truth.

Life is full of them.

Our faith is full of them.

“The rain and snow come down from the heavens
    and stay on the ground to water the earth.
They cause the grain to grow,
    producing seed for the farmer
    and bread for the hungry.
It is the same with my word.
    I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It will accomplish all I want it to,
    and it will prosper everywhere I send it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11, NLT)

Don’t tell me our Heavenly Father doesn’t love a good metaphor!

What a picture!

What a fabulous mirror of His love and provision! For our physical needs.  For our spiritual life in Him.

Rain.  From heaven. 

Listen to the sound!

Rejoice in His certain love for His people.

And then, let our presence in the world today be the mirror of His certain love for everyone we meet.

To a world that increasingly views followers of Christ as aggressors and self-centered misanthropes, I pray we will show the face of our God.

Let it rain! Mirror His love and grace.

Be His metaphor to your world.

He does love a good metaphor.

 

The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.”
So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’” (1 Kings 18:44, NIV)

The soul’s deepest thirst is for God Himself, who has made us so that we can never be satisfied without Him. (F F Bruce ~ British theologian & scholar)

 

© Paul Phillips. He’s Taken Leave. 2020. All Rights Reserved.