Rain

As I sit here in my apartment, I once again listen to the rain pounding the pavement on the road outside. While I love listening to the rain from inside my comfortable apartment, the rain here is continually causing inconveniences for life outside.  I almost always ride my motorcycle to places when the sun is showing its beautiful face only to have it start pouring down rain an hour later leaving me stranded wherever I am.  Sometimes the rain catches me in the middle of a drive soaking my clothes, my backpack and me.  The dirt roads become nothing more than a sea of mud puddles which if you are not careful leave your shoes and jeans looking like a puddle as well.  It negatively impacts businesses; it changes my plans; and overall it makes things messy.

As it poured down rain one morning this week, I sat in my office and God brought to my mind Isaiah 55.  "As the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth:  It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for what I sent it."  I always liked this verse because it always reminded me of fresh buds which would bring spring flowers and new green vegetation.  Yet somehow I never really thought about the entire process.  I never focused on the muddy process of the melting snow and pouring rain that made it possible for those things to grow.

Liliana has 4 kids, a husband who drinks way too much and doesn't help enough, and recently just started a second business in order to further provide for her family.  She starts her work day at 5:00 AM and ends it at 8:00 PM.  She finishes her day, falls into bed only to wake up and do it all over again, not just 5 days a week but 7.  She desperately wants a better life for her and her kids and that dream drives her to move forward.

Sila has 8 grandchildren that live around her house.  She works at an orphanage making a small amount of money in order to provide for her family.  She saves when she can but rarely has any money left over.  Recently, she got very sick and spent three weeks in the ICU at the local hospital.  Not only where the medical bills expensive but it cost her three weeks of work as well.  Her grandkids roam the streets during the day with almost no parental support and sometimes just skip school all together. 

I could continue to fill these pages with similar stories of woman with messy lives.  However, as I have been here, as I have see the rain come in many of the woman's lives, I can see God working through the muddy mess that the rain has caused. Sometimes a small flower is beginning to bloom.  Sometimes a plant is just beginning to poke its head at the ground and sometimes I still only see the muddy puddles.  Yet in all these situations I continue to cling to His promise; for the rain and the messes of life "will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for what I sent it."