God is in the Rain

It’s 2am and I find myself wide awake.  After several attempts at falling back asleep, I get up to make some hot tea and spend some time in prayer.  I settle into my favorite chair and decide to just sit with the Lord for a bit.  As I sit here, the sound of a heavy downpour outside is almost deafening on my tin roof.  I start thinking about the rain.  God has been teaching me a lot lately through the things I am seeing here in the physical.  Here in

Kenya, we are supposedly in the dry season.  Normally

Kenya endures through the scorching heat of December-March without a drop of rain.  But for some reason this year is different, and people are starting to take note.  To have such heavy downpours at this time is most unusual.  So I ask God, “What are you doing here & what are you showing me through the rain?” 

And I start thinking about my small garden.  Back in October during planting season, I planted peas, broccoli, carrots, green beans, corn, cucumber, squash, watermelon, & cantaloupe.  Some of these plants came up while others never surfaced.  Those that didn’t surface, I assumed they were dead, that the seeds where bad & never were able to germinate.  In my garden, the carrots I planted never showed any form of life.  My carrot row remained empty while the other plants sprouted, flowered & produced fruit.  I had given up on my carrots.  But after all these unusual rains, I found myself in my garden again.  One day as I stepped over the desolate “carrot row” I looked down to find a small sprout.  It wasn’t a weed; it was a carrot plant sprouting!  I even said out loud, “Well look at that, it’s a carrot!!”  I immediately started to nurture this small plant that I knew was finally taking root beneath the surface.  Within just a few days it had grown much.  This got me to thinking.  All the other carrot plants had died under the surface as they never got the needed water to grow.  But there was this one seed that seemed to remain dormant underground just waiting for the rainfall. 

I believe that God is in the rain.  And I cannot help but wonder what seeds of His promises he is currently watering to soon break the surface and begin to grow.  There’s a new-ness to rain.  A freshness.  What promises has the Lord made that seem to us to be dead because we have seen no fruit?  We’ve given up on them and have grown weary in waiting.  The rain that’s falling tonight – what is God watering that soon will grow? 

We don’t understand God’s timing.  But he’s in the process of bringing us into a state of awe as we see Him work.  He’s bringing things to life that we thought were dead.  Restoring.  Renewing. 

What dreams and promises is the Lord watering in my life tonight through this rain that soon will start to bloom?  My prayer is that my eyes will be opened to what God is doing in this land and in my heart.  I ask for patience to wait upon His perfect timing for His promises to be fulfilled.  I thank God that He is in the rain; that He is about new life.  He continues to grow my faith each day as I see him working here in

Kenya.