A gentle rain like today (Thursday) allows the earth to soak in the moisture it needs for life to continue and flourish from the earth. Heavy rains in violent storms can bring needed water, but often at a cost. They can erode and tear down the existing landscape and sweep away topsoil that has taken years to build. Generations of life and death have come together to form the fertile earth that provides for plants that give food and shelter to animals and humanity. At the same time, it fills our reservoirs quickly, but often at a high cost of flooding and erosion.

Out of our humanity, our love and worship of God can ironically become destructive, sweeping past the life-giving meaning from the teachings of Scripture. Jesus often pointed this out to the Pharisees when they called on the destructive force of God, even while missing the Christ in front of them. Looking at what we say and do, often without thinking, I fear the best of us has the potential to be the storm. The violence of the storm has its place in nature, but not in the way that likens it to Jesus.

John7:37-39
On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ ” ³⁹ Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive, for as yet there was no Spirit because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Like the life-giving water which Jesus uses to describe himself, the gift of the Holy Spirit and the eternal life he offers, the gentle and sustained rains can calm us, quench our thirst and give us life today and beyond.

To feel the gentle rain on our skin is a reminder to let Jesus and the Spirit calm us and cleanse us for eternal life. A life which begins now and lasts evermore. One which flows from Jesus to us and through us that we may be part of Jesus’s gift of life to the world. It is a reminder to sit quietly and allow our souls to be filled and our hearts to overflow with the beautiful Spirit of God.

May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!

Pastor Rick