I’ve always loved rain.

Running through summer puddles, slipping and sliding in mud, walking slowly under an umbrella, listening to the drops whisper above me. Or just letting cool wetness wash over me after a long dry time.

I especially cherish the rain that fell on our first date; Tom and I walked very carefully under an umbrella,  November 17, 1963! I could hardly hear the pattering of rain as my heart was beating louder!

Rain is a gift, a precious commodity, a gift to grass, flowers and trees. Most of the time. And this May in southwestern Tennessee we have had massive amounts of showers, even storms almost every day. The ones that wet us fully!

I remember the very first time I found out there is another kind of rain. “Into every life some rain must fall”. I was 16, and my high school pastor had just shared this quote with the audience as he told of his wife’s terminal cancer.

A new understanding rained on my young heart that day as I realized my parents’ recent divorce was rain falling, and now I was walking through a different storm.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned these words in his short poem “A Rainy Day” in 1841-2, four years after the death of his young wife.  Though a sad poem, there is truth and hope expressed in the last stanza:

Be still, sad heart, and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

And so it rains…

This past week is the two-year mark of a personal rain storm. I slipped in wet mud, unintentionally, while watering flowers during a very dry May, 2024. It was not a life- threatening storm, but a life-changing one. Complications from the implant surgery will forever be with me.

A few months into my rain, a young friend asked me what God was teaching me. I smiled or did I cry? I had not thought of learning any lesson; I was only trying to maneuver life in a new way, to survive the moments, while still smiling. I walked as I could or scooted, trusting in the same Lord as I have done for these many years. But I did ponder this question, and one day when talking with my editor, I shared how that question had affected me.

He laughed and suggested I look up Isaiah 50:10: “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant? Let him or her who walks in the dark, (the storm) who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God”.

“Keep walking through this, Barb, with the same faith and trust you have been living all your years,” he shared, “you are not required to learn something!” I realized this was truth and seemed to be how I had been surviving each day, in the weeks and even the months. A younger friend who had broken a metatarsal bone in her foot more recently shared that initially she had no idea it would take weeks to recover, and then wrote, “Not knowing what we have ahead of us is another example of God’s grace”.  And so we walk… just walk through the rain one day at a time…

It is this quote by Roger Miller (or Bob Marley or Bob Dylan), “Some people feel the rain, others just get wet” that gives another perspective on rain.  Do I walk with a mindfulness to experience life in the wet moments; can I embrace the pain and the challenges that a new storm brings. I want to be fully present in the rains, intentionally feeling each drop…even when it hurts.  And that’s not easy. There were times, often there are still times, when I crumble in a heap. Tears and rain mix well together.

“Unless the Lord had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death. When I said, “My foot is slipping,” Your love, O Lord supported me. When anxiety was great within me, Your consolation brought joy to my soul” (Psalm 94:17,18,19).

You may know the song When you Walk through the Storm, Hold your Head up High first sung by Frank Sinarta in 1945; it became a massive worldwide hit in 1963 when recorded as a single by the Liverpool group, Gerry and the Pacemakers. Elvis included this in his gospel album in 1967. If you can listen (skip the first ad!) to this rendition with Andre Rieu (a favorite of mine) and his orchestra, you will notice the tears from the audience. https://youtu.be/x3aGlKYlEiY?si=-sHOQrUXZEH1socH, Perhaps they are remembering their storms.

When you walk through a storm hold your head up high
And don’t be afraid of the dark
At the end of a storm is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark

Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain

The only way we can “feel” the rain is in knowing we are never alone… that we do not walk alone. There is no other way. And I, or you, can only walk strongly, trusting and believing in Him, the One we go to for shelter.

“So do not fear, for I am with you, do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).

… feeling the rains…