Don't give your flowers an umbrella

It rained here this weekend, almost all weekend.  It wasn't a non-stop kind of thing, but it was fairly frequent over both days.  I enjoyed it.  I always enjoy the rain. It's the perfect sleeping weather.  It does make it humid, though.  We attended the graduation party of a special young woman Saturday afternoon. It was a great time with tasty food and wonderful company. It was also hot, not your average, "it's a little warm out here, I need to fan myself hot", but "oh my word! I'm melting and I can't even breathe" kind of hot!  I spent a large portion of the time inside in the air conditioning.  Sometimes it pays to bring along the antsy 6 yr old who can't be still while the speeches are all going on before the cake is cut.  So, Scamp and I sat in the den and watched "Shark Week" as I tried to recover from getting too hot and making myself sick.  Even with that, it was a wonderful party for a amazing person. 

What made it seem so hot and sticky was the humidity.  Sure, the temp was up, but the real culprit  was the rain that had saturated the air and made it so moist perspiring did nothing to cool you down.  I will say, however, the yards haven't looked this good in a while, at least in my opinion.  J sees it a different way.  He was frustrated with his inability to get any real amount of yard work done.  J is a worker. Me? Not so much.  I have no problem sitting inside on a rainy weekend and reading a book or watching tv or taking a snooze.  For J, that is pure torture!  He has to be moving, doing, accomplishing, not sitting.  So, while we need the rain and he was thankful for the rain, he was really wishing it had come during the week and not on one of his "home" work days. 

I had no problem with it. We've already covered the fact that I have a PHD in relaxing, but besides that, I'm really enjoying the results.  The sun is just coming up and it's soft light is dappled by the leaves on the trees giving it a fresh, gentle look, as if speaking of the days promise.  The grass and the bushes look lush and green and plump with satisfaction having taken in all the moisture they could hold.  It really is quite beautiful.  The peace of this lovely scene is broken only by the cat who is snoring as she lays at my feet.  It's always something around here! 

I am also noticing the flowers on my back porch.  They don't look so good.  I've got several pots of some sort of pink and red flowers.  I don't remember what they are, but I've worked hard this summer to keep them alive.  It's a difficult task me for as I am usually where plants go when they have been sentenced to die for some horrible deed in the plant world.  These are still hanging in there.  I have to admit, though, they are the second planting as the first ones didn't make it.  That one wasn't my fault, however, since it was due to a freakishly bad hail storm, but that's a different story.  Anyway, the current residents of my back deck flower pots look a little bedraggled.  I'm sure they'll be fine once they get a little sun, but the beating they received from the downpours have left them less than perky.  (now there's something I can relate to, being less than perky, but that, too, is a different blog) 

All this pondering has deposited a realization in me.  It rains when it wants to rain, not when it's convenient for us, not when it fits into our schedule or our agenda, but when the right elements align, we get rain.  It really doesn't matter what day of the week or time of the year it is.  When it's right, it's rain. 

You know I can't just leave it at that.  Nope, gotta go one step further.  The Lord brings the rain of refreshing into our lives on his time, not ours.   I'm sure, if you could ask mr flower on my back deck if he enjoyed being beat half to death by the rain he would have assured you it was not one of his favorite things.  However, when the sun is at it's highest today and it's beating down on him in all it's fiery strength, that flower will be glad it has moisture deep down around it's roots it can draw from.  I believe that is the case in our lives sometimes.  The Lord can pour out his rain on us until we are nearly drowning.  It can soak us to the point of saturation and beyond.  We can even think "enough!" and yet he still pours it down. But then, the heat of life comes and we have that moisture deep down we can draw from.  If the water doesn't go deep, the roots won't go deep.  Just like that flower, our roots won't grow deep into the soil if there is no moisture there. 

There may be times in our lives when we thirst for the rain of the Lord.  Life is rough, we are feeling dry and there's not a cloud in the sky.  Then there are times when the Lord is ready to pour into us the waters of refreshing, but we are too concerned with what we need to do.  We find it difficult to sit still and allow him to revive us because we have work to do and the rain is hindering us.  The downpour of the spirit's rain comes on his schedule.  When God decides  it should rain, you'd better get ready because, like it or not, convenient or not, you're gonna get wet!

I want to be so attuned to the Spirit I don't ever miss a time of refreshing because I'm too wrapped up in my work.  I ask the Lord, today, to make me child like.  I've seen my kids, when they were small, playing in the rain without a care in the world.  Standing out in the yard with raindrops falling all around them, soaking them to the core, they had no thought to anything, they only felt.  They only were.  Content to soak up the glory of the moment, they had no thought of muddy feet or dripping clothes or the bath that would have to follow.  I want to be as caught up in the moment as they were, so caught up in the flooding of the spirit I have no thought for anything else but enjoying the moment.  Because it rains when God wants it to and not before.

So take a good look at your spiritual sky today.  Are there clouds up there full of refreshing rain getting ready to unleash all over you and your schedule?  Take advantage of it. Don't let what you wanted to accomplish hinder the work the Lord wants to do in your life. Sometimes that is to rain all kinds of blessings of refreshment down on your head. So don't get out your umbrella so you can keep working! Stand out in the yard and soak in the wonder of it.  The rain doesn't come every day so be ready to enjoy it when it does.  Just like those flowers, one day you're going to need that moisture, so soak it up while you can. 

I'll be here, enjoying the view from my window.  You didn't expect me to go out there, did you?  It's hot out there!  It's humid out there!  There is dirt out there with bugs and junk!  No thank you.  I'll enjoy my view from my table by the window.  My idea of roughing it means the pool is closed.  Until next time I am.......

Soaked in His blessings,
Spokenfor


The Secret to Life

Soft, misty shades of green
seem to float outside my window,
beckon me to gaze, dream
as the day emerges from slumber.

I lose myself in the glory
of the newness, the freshness of hope
again within the grasp.

The shadows are dappled,
the air cool,
pure, like breathing champagne,
untainted by a sun not yet harsh.

How simple, how childlike,
how uncluttered is the morning.
Therein lies the secrete to life.