Unwanted Rain

Here’s what I hate: unwanted rain.

I should want the rain.  We have grass seed planted in our back yard after all, and it needs watering.  But, I was supposed to walk with my neighbor today at 5:30am and it was raining so hard at that time, we would have needed a boat!  Also, Abbey is supposed to have soccer practice, but I suppose the fields might be too soggy by this afternoon even if the rain stops. Pooh.

Weather and nature—unpredictable stuff sometimes. 

On a wonderful visit with my dad out in California recently, he said the funniest thing—(he often says funny things and keeps me giggling constantly just like when I was little)—he said: “That’s the thing about nature: sand and flies and ants—it’s endless when you go out in it.” 

It’s true—there are some unpleasant things about nature and some choose to avoid being in nature as much as possible…they go from air conditioned houses to air conditioned cars into cement parking garages and on into air conditioned office buildings.  It’s quite possible to completely avoid sand and bugs and outside air for that matter. 

So, some choose to bring nature in.  They put cut flowers in vases or even choose paintings or photographs of nature.  They pick and choose the bits they like.  Trees and grass are lovely, but kill the bugs and avoid the dirt at all costs. 

However, to really experience nature, you have to be in it.  Not parts of it brought in for your enjoyment—rather 

lie on your back in the sand.  

Let the wind mess up your hair.  

Taste the salt air.  

Hear the chirping, buzzing, rustling all around.  

Squint in the sun. 

To really experience nature, you have to let it in.  

Breathe the air cleansed by trees.  

Let your eyes feast on sunsets, lizards, leaves, flowers, palms, waterfalls, and every color imaginable.  

Eat it all up and you’ll never be too full to take in more, yet you’ll be strangely satisfied. 

Once you accept the annoyance of dirt and bugs and temperature, you will find that nature is an uncontrollable beauty which fills you in ways you didn’t even know you needed. 

There is no way to know it all—scientists are all the time making new discoveries about micro-organisms and the universe at large.  It seems endless, and it is!—in the sense that there are an infinite number of sunsets and snow flake designs.  The weather itself is a component of nature that cannot be predicted fully and accurately.  We know in part how everything works and yet we cannot control it.

This crazy planet is a living thing—moving and breathing and reeling and stiring up our hearts.

Got is like that.

We pick and choose the bits we like.  Love and charity and hope are all lovely, but kill the morality and avoid the truth at all costs.

But to really experience God, we have to be in Him.  Not parts of Him brought in for our own enjoyment. Rather, 

lie on your back in the dusty parts of scripture.  

Let the Spirit mess up your thoughts.  

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Hear the crying poetry and wisdom rustling the pages.  

Squint in the Son’s sacrifice.

To really experience God, you have to let Him in.  

Breathe in the truth of His cleansing power.  Let your mind’s eye feast on the descriptions of His holiness, the strength of His character, the depth of His love, the faithfulness of all His acts.

Eat up all His promises and you’ll never be too full to take in more, yet you’ll be unexplainably satisfied. 

Once you accept the annoyance of the moral code, absolute truth, and the necessity of death for sin, (immovable parts of the story), you’ll find that God is an uncontrollable beauty who will fill you in ways you always secretly knew you needed. 

There is no way to know it all—God is infinite.  He has revealed pages and pages about His character in scripture (and in nature), but even with all we know about God, we cannot control Him—just as we cannot control the weather.  God is a living thing—moving and breathing and whispering and stirring up our hearts. 

I may not want the rain today, but I need it.