I Can't Remember the Last Time I ____________.

Very telling words, those seven.

They came as I sit on our covered porch listening to the rain rolling off the metal roof and landing on the parched ground.

The smell refreshing.                                                                                                                            The air cool and damp.                                                                                                                         The view manifold shades of grey .                                                                                                          My light jacket providing the necessary comfort to stay and feel the slight rock of the hanging swing.

I can’t remember the last time I just sat experiencing the wonder of rain.

While I sat, thoughts tumbled into my journal…

The gutter-less metal roof causing streams of water to cascade before me defines the picture. Those streams from above cut small crevices in the hardened earth below; the crevices enlarge and the crusty brown turns soft and malleable.

A visual from God? Perhaps.

Might the rain be picturing God’s tears falling on the hard places of our lives; creating crevices and gently crushing our overly-protective exterior replacing it with seeds of trust, and grace, and growth in the now softened soil?

Is this not a living illustration of Isaiah 55:10-13?
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the LORD, and everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

I’m thinking I need to create more times—times of sitting and pondering God’s masterpieces—and fill in the blank behind my “I can’t remember…” seven words.

New aware-nesses and new perspectives that my busy, full life often speed by become obvious. I want to harvest those good seeds and let them conform me to His activities.

Oh how much I miss in the fast lane!

What does this look like for you? How do you take time to watch, to be with, to hear from God? What are the crusts in your life that would benefit from the gentle water of the Word? What would it look like today for you to trust what you are hearing from God?

“The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring. Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the LORD on high is mighty!” (emphasis added) Psalm 93:3, 4