Holy Mystery

When the wet mist finally got heavy enough high up in the clouds, it started falling to the waiting earth.  All day long the dirt upon which I walk was marked and nurtured by the baptizing rain.  Some surely could only see how inconvenient was the rain.  Others raced from here to there covering their head as if getting wet would somehow destroy the rest of the day.  Such days are generally regarded as gray, dismal, dreary days which are mostly tolerated, but seldom embraced.    

Most of us miss the mystery taking place as the water from the high heavens touches the needy soil.  As the soil is soaked, life is renewed and created as surely as new life is conceived in the human womb.  And, on days like this day, there is such an overflow that it seeps down deep until it begins to drip in underground rivers.  On this wet dismal day, holy mystery surrounds us.   It is as if the earth receives a baptism of heavenly water bringing new life to visibility in the creation.  

And as we watch, we are reminded of the way spiritual baptisms do much the same for each one of us who embrace the Spirit who seeks to wash over us, fill us, and overflow from us into the deep places where our life brings forth new life to others who share this place with us.  The baptismal waters of our spiritual tradition point us to this baptism of the Spirit which like the falling rain brings into visibility a creation never before seen.  (II Corinthians 5:17)