“Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed, receives the blessing of God.” Hebrews 6:7“

I should have brought a jacket” complained my son Justin, this week, as he stepped out of the car into the pouring rain to make a dash for Stonewall Jackson High School. Yep, that pair of shorts and a tee shirt looked pretty inadequate as he darted onto the sidewalk, sidestepping an enormous puddle. “Probably could have used an umbrella, too!” I called after him.

It seems like we are stuck in a rainy pattern here for a few weeks. I heard the meteorologist on WTOP say that this rainy front would be stalled over us for some time. We tend to think of rainy days as a negative and long for blue skies, even while we know in our head that the rain is good for our flowers and lawn, the water table, and certainly the farmers.

I remember a few years ago we were caught in a similar weather pattern. For over a week it just rained and rained and rained. As many of you know, my wife teaches piano lessons and late in the afternoon came our good friend Joanne to pick up her children after lessons.

“Good afternoon, what a lovely day!” Joanne lilted in her beautiful Irish accent as she folded up her umbrella.

“Lovely? Lovely? It’s been raining for the last six days straight!” we protested.

“I suppose so, but in Ireland we get rain all the time. It doesn’t bother us at all. We are used to it.”

From there we had a conversation about how it rains in Ireland up to 225 days a year and about how lush and verdant the land was with its many shades of green. No wonder Ireland is nicknamed “The Emerald Isle.”

“But you can’t have the green without the rain.” Joanne concluded.

Wow! “You can’t have the green without the rain.” There’s a lot of wisdom in that statement. So many times we think of the “rain” in our lives as negative- a season of trial, a time of tears, a heavy burden we bear or relational conflict that just won’t seem to resolve. How we long for the sunny and carefree days of summer when there isn’t a cloud in the sky. It’s interesting that in the Bible, rain is almost always seen as a blessing. In fact, lack of rain is viewed as a curse in that agricultural society. Rain was viewed as the necessary foundation for growth, harvest, drinkable water and life itself.

I think the same is true spiritually. If we had sunshine all the time, we’d never experience any growth. In fact, it is those valley times, those times of rain that provide the exact material God uses to cultivate growth, productivity and, in time, a rich spiritual harvest.

So, let it rain!