It rained a ton this weekend. I can’t speak for you but I can speak for me: I hate winter rain. If we’re going to get precipitation, I would much rather have snow. Snow means snowmen, snow ice cream, snow angels. Snow is serene, peaceful, enchanting. Rain is…wet (or is it?). It’s easy to frown when it rains, especially in the winter. It’s already cold; nobody likes to be cold and wet.

So there I was, sitting in my house, being glum about the rain, when what do I come across, but some words a preacher-friend of mine wrote:

If you choose not to find joy in the rain then you can complain about it…and the result will be you having less joy in your life…But you’ll have the same amount of rain.
Happiness is an inside job.

What good does it do me or anyone around me to be sour when it rains? The better reaction would be to find the positive in the situation. I have to choose to be happy and that starts with looking for a reason to be. There’s an old hymn we don’t really sing but it carries a powerful message in its simple poetry.

Is it raining, little flower?
Oh, be glad of rain!
Too much sun would wither thee;
Soon ’twill shine again.
Though the sky is black, ’tis true,
Yet behind it shines the blue.

Art thou weary, tender heart?
Oh, be glad of pain;
Sweetest things in sorrow grow
As the flow’rs in rain.
God is watching, thou’lt have sun
When the clouds their work have done

The first stanza is plain and simple. It’s the kind of thing you might hear in any context, religious or otherwise, when you’re upset about rainclouds. The second stanza is where the spiritual application comes in: Sorrowful times are not permanent, clouds of life will not linger over our heads forever. Our lives are like plants, needing both sunshine and rain. The former warms us and motivates us. The latter makes us sag, but—if we let it—can also give us what we need to grow greater for our Maker. It is God who says that the rain falls so that the flowers and grass may grow to bring seed and flour, and to provide us bread (Isaiah 55:10).

I don’t like the rain, especially in the winter, but I thank the Lord for it, and for what it can teach me.

~ Matthew