There is something intoxicating about the smell of rain. If you pay close attention, you can tell when rain approaches simply by the scent. I am not alone in my love of this smell. I know because there is an attempt to make products that mimic this scent. There are valiant attempts but ultimately fall short. I’m not sure duplication is even possible.
As an adult, I have probably spent more time in the rain than I did as a child. At some point, I just let go and didn’t worry about if I got wet or not. I have even been known to simply stop and allow the rain to fall directly on my face, soaking up the goodness of a weighty cloud. I find the rain cleansing, even redemptive. It feels as though I am being set free as the water washes over me. I imagine as I close my eyes that God is washing away my impurities, the things which hold me back from following him. I embrace the release of my insecurities and my fears. I allow it all to simply fall off of me in a sign that I really am free. I am redeemed.
If I’m honest, it isn’t the rain that is offering all of this to me. Rain is simply water falling from clouds. It is, rather, the love of God that is raining down on me. That is where the true freedom, the actual redemption is found. It is in God’s love that we find cleansing and hope. We find the promise of forgiveness and the release of those things which hold us down. It is in God’s love that we begin to dance, dance in the rain.
May God’s love wash over you today and may he fill you with hope for a new start.
Focus Scripture:
Psalm 51 (select verses)
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
6 You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
SEEING THE EXTRAORDINARY 