Proverbs 25:14 “Like clouds and wind without rain Is a man who boasts of his gifts falsely.”
A song that reminds me of younger days carries these words.
“Let it rain, let it rain, it won’t do nothin’ but kindle a never ending flame. Let it rain…”
I sit and listen to the rain on the roof that breaks the stillness of the day and I wonder many things about God. The thing about rain is not whether it is a blessing or a curse. That answer is in the perspective of the individual.
I did a search of the word “Rain” in the bible and it was clear that God does not send the rain exclusively to those who need it. God allows rain to feed the crops and to wash them away. The sound of rain, though it can be soothing to the poet can be a disappointment to the workers of the fields and the ruin of the one who needs the sun to shine.
In this country while the wheat farmer prays for rain the cherry farmer prays to delay it. Whose prayer does God answer?
God brings goodness to all and hardship to all and in each life a little rain must fall. Is it our place to judge God for the rain He brings? Jeremiah wants us to know God not only brings the clouds for the rain but puts the lightening in those clouds.
I’ve seen the rain bring life back to a desert and I’ve been on a sandbag crew fighting against the resulting rain-swollen river and I’ve been pinned down in the crossfire of a lightening war when it seems all of nature is threatened and I’ve seen the fire it can bring.
Yet I can still sit, like today, and find peace in the soft rain. Rain really is a paradox.
Is God a paradox because He creates such confusion? No. God is really quite up front about the “abandon” with which He lets the rain fall. Matthew 5:45 “…He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
Some things we simply must accept. Perhaps the rain really is intended to “…Kindle a never ending flame”, as the song says. Perhaps rain is meant to remind us we must trust God in all things. Perhaps the purpose for rain is not to comfort but to bring us to our knees regardless of the fortune that accompanies it. Perhaps it is to remind us to praise Him regardless of the misfortune that accompanies it. Perhaps rain is one of those inconsistencies intended to help us learn to be consistent.
Maybe rain reminds us to be more concerned for a brother and praise God for the blessing of a neighbor though it be a curse on us.
Rain, like fire and wind and a wave on the water, has a beauty to it even when it brings harm. If God brings it we should see God in it in the form of beauty and purpose.
To be sure rain is best in moderation and as in all things it serves the purpose for which God sent it. He has sent it in wrath and blessing but both just and unjust receive it and are changed by it. God does not explain Himself on issues of life and death; good or evil; sun or rain, it’s just there fulfilling His purpose.
Rain would not fall if God did not purpose it. Psalm 68 “The earth quaked;
The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God;”