Rain

 . . . like gentle rain on grass, like showers on new growth. 

 - From Deuteronomy 32

Yesterday, we had a day-long sustained experience of cold rain. 

Rain changes things. It delays baseball games. Causes picnics and other outdoor events to be canceled. It forces you inside. 

I had planned to do a 5K jog yesterday, but at my age, and in the covid era, (I deliberately do not capitalize "covid". The entire dubious concept deserves no iota of honor), I stay inside if it rains and is under 50 degrees. 

But I got other things done. I've been pushing, these past few weeks, to get through my basic daily task list, including the discretionary-optional things. And I did . . . I did not complete much, but every one of my daily wish-list items got checked off. This felt good. 

It's strange how certain minor events stay on your mind. They shape you, influence you. In the 1990s I was living outside Atlanta, Georgia. I did not particularly like it there. But I had been a Covey practitioner and was learning to be happy in all things, especially things I could not change. I most disliked the lengthy season of hot, almost tropical weather. In this particular moment, my boss (named "John"), a transplanted Pennsylvanian that had no intention ever of returning to the "cold" north, was on a phone call, in his office. My cubicle was just outside. 

It was November in north Georgia, and we were experiencing the first spell of sustained, cold rainy weather. To me, it was more than welcome. I could relax inside, with a book, or a movie. The nice, toasty furnace would be running. 

I heard John say, over the phone "The weather's miserable."

There are few moments from this period, which is now over twenty-five years ago, that I remember with such clarity. This is one of them.

It struck me, how you can hate cold weather enough to live in Atlanta, where it's too hot nine months out of the year, and still find it within you to obsess about the one day in half a year, that's not perfect. 

Humans are about 60% water. When you get a little dehydrated, especially with age, you can feel it. Without water, there is no garden, no produce. You can't eat without it. And you have to drink it. It keeps the lawns green. It is what every cooling swimming pool must have. 

We are baptized with water. 

God seems to like water. He likes it so much that He didn't want us ever again, to think of it as a great instrument of judgment (as in Noah's time). A steady rain covers everything. After soaking the ground, it will begin to run off, where it will replenish the lakes and streams. 

God's word is likened to rainfall. The beautiful praise song from the 1990s, "Holy Spirit Rain Down" was a kind of play on words, where "reign," I believe, is also referenced. The classic Who song, "Love Reign Over Me" does the same wordplay. 

We are supposed to take that illustration . . . Holy Spirit Rain Down . . . as a positive thing. And it helps, to get the full effect, if you have not cultivated a dislike of rain. 

We can't change the weather. We can't change nature. We can't stop or alter the water cycle. 

Rain is a good thing. It's a very good thing.