Look up at the clouds. What does it make you feel grateful for?
April showers.
That’s one of my favorite phrases, although I always found it a bit funny that the month that is supposed to bring rain brought me the sunshine of my life, who will be turning 10 years old this month.
When I was in college, I remember the rainy season being particularly troublesome for me. Aside from a decent umbrella, I learned to carry around an extra pair of shoes and socks, as my college campus had and still has an unfortunate habit of flooding very quickly. Especially bad were the early morning classes when it had already been raining for sometime. My fellow students and I liked to joke that in order to get anywhere you needed a canoe.
For this season in particular, I didn’t feel terribly grateful looking up at the clouds and knowing rain was coming. I felt inconvenienced. Irritated. Until one particularly wet day, after sloshing my way home from class, I sat and watched a local news broadcast. The meteorologist was providing the forecast and extolling how much the rain was good for the farmers and how they were so thankful for it.
Wait. The farmers. The farmers need the rain. It seems silly that someone who grew up in West Texas could ever forget the absolute necessity that is the rainy season, but I had. So I decided to imagine myself as a farmer, desperate for a good downpour to water my crops. Many times in my life, I had looked up at the sky, thankful for the warmth of the sunshine. That day, I learned to be thankful even if I looked up and saw clouds. What I saw as an inconvenience, was actually a blessing, an answer to someone else’s prayers. Plants need both sunlight and rain to grow healthy and strong. And God in His wisdom knows that we need both as well. The next time you look up at the sky and see clouds ready to inconvenience your plans for the day, grab your umbrella, and remember you have a good Father who knows just what you need.
45 Then you will be acting like your Father in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both good and bad people. And he sends rain for the ones who do right and for the ones who do wrong. Matthew 5:45 CEV
You are loved.
Brianna Richardson
💗 So very true. Sometimes our inconveniences are somebody else’s blessings!