The Purpose of Rain

I absolutely love rain.

When it falls gently, or when it falls with force, there is just something special about that glorious water that comes from the clouds.

Rain does different things each season. In spring after a rain, the world looks brighter. All the new growth has a sharper green color. Summer rains bring relief from the constant heat. For a moment, it is perfectly fine to go outside and enjoy the “cool” of only eighty degrees instead of the oppressive ninety-plus heat. Rain in the fall is a strange occurrence. It takes away the few leaves that remain on the trees and adds more slosh to those leaves as we walk on them. Winter rain is my least favorite. Usually the thermometer says “cold,” so when rain falls instead of snow, it’s the kind that permeates every layer of clothing.  In other words, it’s a cold rain that only makes me shiver more.

Regardless of when it falls, though, I enjoy thinking about how rain serves as cleanser, refresher, purifier, and life-giver. We take it for granted, until we don’t have any for an extended period.

Isn’t that what we do with so much in our lives?

We humans have not always had rain. It is first mentioned in Genesis 2, but not because it had actually rained: “…the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth…” (Genesis 2:5), referring to the fact that shrubs and field plants had not yet sprung up. In the Garden of Eden, God planted all kinds of trees, which were watered by a river flowing through it. Rain isn’t mentioned again until Genesis 7, which is the story of the great flood that Noah and his family escaped by floating in the ark with many animals. At that time, rain was promised by God, and not just a small rain. This rain would last for forty days and forty nights, wiping out every living creature from the face of the earth.

Rain sometimes has to clean the slate so new can begin.

After this rain had ended and the floodwaters subsided, Noah and the inhabitants of the ark made their way onto the newly cleansed land. Noah built an altar and gave thanks to God. Even when the world around him looked very different, he still remembered the goodness of God. The rain changed the outward appearance of the earth, but it did not wipe away Noah’s belief in the one true God. God was with him when Noah entered the ark. God was with him while he was in the ark. God was with him when he came out of the ark.

The same is true for us, my friend.

We may go through seasons when we feel like the rain just keeps coming. Noah had forty days of rain; at times, may we feel like the rain falling on us lasts so much longer than that. Difficulties with children, parents, coworkers, friends, neighbors, church members, people in the checkout lines—all of these add up to the feeling of a perpetual black cloud over our heads. No matter what we do, we just can’t seem to get out from under the constant rain that greets us each day.

Those seasons of rain are hard to endure.

Just like Noah, we need a new perspective on those rainy days.

We can find it in the next chapter of Genesis (Genesis 9), where God makes a covenant with Noah. According to dictionary.com, a covenant is “an agreement, usually formal, between two or more persons to do or not do something specified.” In this case, God makes a covenant with Noah, his descendants (that’s us), and with every living creature that was with Noah on the ark. God promises that He will never again flood the entire earth. That would have been enough, but God doesn’t stop there.  He also creates a sign as a remembrance of this covenant: a rainbow. The appearance of a rainbow in the sky serves as a reminder of the everlasting covenant God made with man.

 

Rain ushers in that covenant sign. Sometimes rainy days serve as precursors to a new movement of God.

I think this is why I am so enamored with rain. Just as its physical presence can wipe a slate clean, its spiritual presence can wipe away all the dirt that may have collected in our souls. There are times when rain can be difficult to endure, as the waters may rise and localized flooding may occur. Just as we can see this happening with our eyes, we can also feel those rainy days build up in our lives. We may have a sense as if we are drowning under the weight of all the rain. It is then that we need to pull out our umbrella in the shape of God’s Word.  Open your Bible and read of people who had many rainy days, like our friend Noah. The stories of people like Joseph, Ruth, and Mary show that not all days are sunny and that hard things happen.

When we look at rain from a new perspective and see rainy days as the working of God, our whole mindset changes. Physical rain is necessary for plants to grow; spiritual rain is necessary for our souls to thrive. Physical rain may come in a downpour, but an overflow of spiritual rain may water parts of our lives that have become desert-like. Physical rain can make certain activities difficult; spiritual rain may make our lives less difficult by turning us away from activities or people that are harmful to our well-being. By seeing physical rain as a symbol of the spiritual rain given to us by God, we can enjoy the mild drizzle or the torrent deluge. It all comes from the hand of our ever-present, ever-loving, covenant-keeping God.

Anita Fessler is a wife, mom, and Bible study teacher, who loves to cook, write and make music. She and her husband have two grown sons who come home to NC often, bringing their special sweetheart girls with them. You can follow her at https://anitafessler.wordpress.com/ or on social media at https://www.facebook.com/beverywellfed.

Photograph © Roman Synkevych, used with permission