Rain.

Have you ever had a moment where you wish you could just freeze time because it is just so beautiful? Sometimes don't you wish that you could stay in those moments forever? But then... when you least expect it, it starts to rain. It always rains. Doesn't it?

It's interesting, because the Scriptures say all sorts of things about rain and storms. When Jesus is teaching about what it means to live, like the fullness of life in His kingdom. When Jesus speaks of it, He speaks of two different people. He speaks of a person who builds their house on sand, someone who chooses to reject his teachings; and then someone who builds their life, their house, on rock; who chooses to build their life on Jesus' teachings.

The metaphor He uses is that of a storm that comes. The person who rejects His teachings and His truth, essentially the house built on sand, just gets destroyed, but the house that's bullet on rock stands. This idea that, when Jesus says when the rain comes-it's not like they might, they do. It rains in our lives.... a lot.

No matter whether it be the kind of rain that occasionally drips in our lives or the rain that plasters down and drenches us. Do you ever feel like you just want to cry out when it starts raining, "Why me?" I have felt like this several times throughout this year in college. It's like when it starts raining this hard, even the trees above us cannot protect us anymore. The people in whom we trust with our lives-they run out of things to say.

But when you look up the word "cry," look in the Scriptures, you find that this word comes up over and over again, like even in the book of Psalms, just the book of Psalms. If you just start reading through, it speaks over and over and over again of crying. Of crying out to God. And God says there amazing things, like, "When you cry out to me, I listen" He even says, "I cannot ignore the cries of someone who is afflicted." It's like if I'm hurting, lost, soaking wet, scared, confused, God says, "You cry out and I hear." God even says that when you cry He's close to the broken hearted, he's close to those who cry out and admit they're scared, sot, soaking wet, and confused.

See, there is this false, twisted idea out there among religious people that somehow you gotta have it all together to have a relationship with God. That like somehow God's only looking for people who have no problems, and have it all nailed down, and can put on the happy face all the time. And yet the Scriptures speak directly against this kind of thinking.

Jesus is even just straight ahead when he says, "Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden." The essence of salvation is crying out to God and admitting I don't have it all together. It's admitting I am lost, I am hurting, and this sinful nature I carry around with me has really screwed things up for me and God if you don't show me the way home, if you don't fix things, if you don't step in, I am dying here.

And this kind of thinking is all throughout the Scriptures. It's over and over again, God says to us,   "When you come to me you come to me with all your junk, you come to me with your problems, come to me all screwed up, all messed up. Let me take care of it." Jesus even sets out looking for people and he even says this, he says, "I'm not looking for the healthy, I came for the sick."

It's weird to think about the perspective we see rain from. For us, the storm is our reality. We see nothing else. We have trouble seeing the reality beyond the storm. And what we sometimes forget, is that our Heavenly Father would do anything to get us home. When we are crying out to God, we need to allow Him to pull us close to His chest, and wrap His arms around us and He holds us tightly up again His heart.

We need to imagine Him walking us through the storm, carrying us every step of the way, as he whispers in our ear over and over again, "I love you. We're gonna make it. I know the way home. We're gonna make it. I love you."

Now imagine after we get out of this storm and we are looking back at this storm we experienced. Isn't the reaction most people give, "God, what did you let me go through that for? I've got all this junk inside me. What did you--I thought you loved me. How could you have exposed me to something that horrible? That storm, I mean, why didn't you protect me?" Think about how our Heavenly Father feels when this happens. He is crushed because for Him, this walk, this storm is one of the deepest, most intimate memories with His children.

Maybe we're bitter or we've got all of this anger inside because there are some things we have been through, some storms in our lives. And we're wondering if He really loved us, if God really was there, He wouldn't have let us go through those things. And maybe God is saying, "No, don;t you understand? I got to hold you tight and remind you over and over again, "I love you."

And as it says in the Scriptures, the book of Deuteronomy chapter one, God's reminding his people of how good he's been to them, and He says, "Remember, I carried you like a father carries a son."

And now, when we are soaking wet, lost, hurting, and confused, may we cry out, and may the Creator of the universe take us out of the pack. May he hold us tight up against His chest. May He wrap His eternal loving arms around us, and may we hear Him whisper, "I love you. We're gonna make it. I know the way home. We're gonna make it. I love you"

*NOOMA. Rain.


Lord,  thank you so much for being You.
You have carried me through many storms 
and I don't think I give you the credit you deserve. 
You diligently seek for my heart to be Yours.
I want to give it to You. You deserve it.
I am giving You all of my heart even in the storms of this life.