Rain

The other week I sat listening to the rain fall and it sounded like drops of tears were hitting my roof. Crying for me over the loss of time, health, opportunities and relationships.

But somewhere in hearing those rain drops hit the roof, I also heard hope. Because rain doesn’t just darken the sky and make the outlook bleak. Rain soaks a thirsty ground. It brings life to what is dying. And it washes away impurities.

Rain can be depressing. But even the darkest storm brings life to that which would have otherwise died. Maybe that’s the same for you and I.

In John chapter 12, Jesus teaches us that a kernel of wheat that is planted and grows remains alone. But a kernel of wheat that is planted and dies produces a harvest of many new lives.

That’s contradictory. After all, what person would go through the effort of planting something, only to hope that it would die? But that’s the teaching of Christ. That sometimes it’s only in death that true life is found.

For some, death is a physical separation. For others it’s emotional. For others it’s the loss of something so profound that it paralyzes them. But in that death, we can hope, because we know that in the Kingdom of God death makes way for new life.

So now when I hear the rain, I no longer feel like crying. Because I can see that each one of my losses have fallen to the fertile ground of God’s kingdom. And it’s only there that they can spawn to produce new life, better life.