Afternoon Rain

Suddenly my ears perked up telling me something was coming.  Out on the back porch midst the middle of a summer heat, the momentary cooling of the rain was most welcomed.  Tbe sun never ceased shining and the rain drops seemed like huge clear prisms as they pelted roofs, danced down rain gutters, and chased me to another chair. The main event of the afternoon lasted nearly fifteen minutes and reminded me that "they" used to say a rain during sunshine meant the devil was beating his wife.  While I cannot speak to the veracity of such a claim, I do know that when the rain stopped the green grass seemed covered with sparkling diamonds.  

God has a way of bringing unexpected moments of wonder creating surprising things in our life.  Today is was a sudden and short mini storm of hard falling rain.  Yesterday it was the blessing of a conversation with two folks coming out of a Baptist Church in the middle of nowhere.  A few evenings ago there was a sunset so majestic I wondered if I had ever seen one, or would ever see another.  All of us can count these moments which come like epiphanies in our life.  Suddenly they appear and even quicker they are gone, but always with a breath of gratitude going after them.   

As surely as God brings such blessed moments to refresh our physical senses, so does He come with moments that to others are invisible, but for us are like living water.  We are those who have walked in great darkness and seen the inextinguishable light.  We are those who find themselves being reminded again and again of undeserved forgiveness filled with mysterious grace.  We are those who live touched by the soft but unmistakable love of someone who is committed to stand alongside us for the duration.  We are those who are loved by God, not just for a moment such as comes the afternoon rain, but forever and even beyond into eternity.