The Bottom of the Rain

There are some moments in the day that I just feel crushed.  Some days contain many of these moments and sometimes those moments overtake the entire day.

It was raining yesterday and it became one of those moments where my heart hurt and my spirit felt crushed.  I didn't feel good and the rain added another layer to it all.

I usually love the rain, admiring the drops as they fall upon the trees and flowers, and listening to the frogs rejoice in the fresh puddles surrounding them.

Usually.

But all I could think about were the puddles this rain was leaving behind.  We had so much rain the day before, we really didn't need anymore.

I turned my attention to the bottom of the rain...and I put myself there.  I felt like I was at the bottom of the rain, not in a storm, not in the rain, but at the bottom of the rain. In the mud.  In the puddle it was leaving behind.

I have never done that before.

I quickly started thinking that I better focus on the moment that the sun would come out again.

I thought this was going to be the perfect day for a rainbow, right?

I  just knew there was going to be a rainbow to shower me with hope at the end of this day.

Well, as the sun peered through the rain clouds, I anxiously opened my door and walked outside expecting a rainbow...no rainbow.

I went to the back of my yard...no rainbow.

I walked back in and waited for the rainbow.

I repeated this at least four times.

Finally, I shut the door and said there's not going to be a rainbow today.

With a pout, I decided I wasn't going back out to check and I closed the curtain too.

The moment I closed the curtain, I felt really bad.

I had a horrible attitude and this was not going to make my crushed spirit any better.

Where had my hope gone?

Was it contingent upon seeing a rainbow?

Yes, yes it was.

And I know better.

I opened the door again and walked on my back porch, this time not looking for a rainbow...but looking for what God wanted to show me.

This is what I saw...

Pretty magnificent, right?

It's not a rainbow, but it sure is a reflection of the majesty in the heavens, the ONE who is the maker of the rain, the rainbows, and all of the evidence it leaves behind.

The ONE who knows what we need, always!  The ONE who offers us hope no matter what our circumstances are, but we have to be willing to open the door to see it.  I literally slammed the door on it four times yesterday...so grateful I opened it again!

Even at the bottom of the rain, I found hope...simply by letting go of what I thought God should do and embracing what He had already done and was doing.

This morning, I went outside to clean the pool filter and when I did, I walked through the biggest puddle of mud and I smiled...I was standing in the bottom of the rain but my heart was full of hope!  If God would have given me a rainbow yesterday, I can assure you I wouldn't have appreciated this at all!

Thank you God  for the bottom of the rain moments that teach me that my hope is in YOU!  Thank you God for letting me be full of hope even when my feet are covered in mud!