Soul-scape - Rain

Zero percent.
Not gonna happen.
Impossible and improbable.

That was what the weather channel said were the chances of rain that day when I set out to the store.  But with a cart full of bags the rain fell from the sky.  Not a soft, gentle rain, but one that goes sideways because of the wind that is whipping all around.  Not an inconvenient rain, but one that soaked my shirt and sandals and skin. 

Rain can refresh and renew.
But it can also ruin a perfectly wonderful afternoon picnic.

Rain is necessary and needed for all living things to grow - including us.
But sometimes we just wish that it would wait a few moments...like until my grocery are in the trunk and I am safely inside my car.
Jesus centuries ago said that the rain falls on both the just and unjust (not sure who I was at that moment, but given what I said in response to getting soaked, I am going to lean more toward "unjust")  Rain cannot be controlled or contained.  Sometimes strangely rain can also fall in the front of your house while the back is dry as the dessert in summer.

Rain shapes our souls.  As much as I long for the solar power of the sun to fill me with vitamin D, I also know that the chemicals that are stirred up from the earth after a good rain storm bring a smile to my face too.  I know that rain in Florida is like snow up north ~ an excuse to stay inside with a good book or a movie.  I know that sometimes in our lives what we think will never happen suddenly ends up to be exactly our experience.  We don't go looking for love that night, but end up meeting our future spouse.  We don't go expecting to have a good time at that event, but it ends up being exactly what we needed.  Sometimes when we give something a zero percent chance of making a difference, it is exactly the moment that transforms us the most.

When has this been true for you?
When has the unexpected and unforeseen suddenly become exactly what was needed and necessary?  A blessing you could have never asked for and now don't want to ever give back?

Those rain moments that shape our souls might never have been predicted, but are nevertheless traces of God's grace soaking and saturating us in life giving ways.

Blessings ~~