The rain fell after a hot day. The sun broke through the clouds ever so slightly, the leaves acting as curtains as the sun peeked between them. The rain fell in heavy drops, hitting the pavement, sinking into soil and seeping into roots everywhere.
We hadn’t received rain in weeks, and the ground was aching. The grass was turning. At the slightest hint of moisture, the blades perked up, welcoming the needed nourishment.
I stood in the middle of it. It was the quietest my day had been; with three boys running at my feet, the sound of the rain was a like a baptism back into sanity. It was too picturesque, the way the rain fell. The way the sun hit the leaves and splashed across the puddles. I looked around and the glory of it hit me like a wave. Maybe you don’t often wonder what heaven is like, but in that moment, that felt like heaven. Not the “heaven” of having time just for myself, which is heavenly for a mom like me, but rather, the eternity we get with the Father. The peace of being with Him for all of time. The quiet and stillness of His creation being just as He created it.
Let it be quiet. Find it somewhere in the day. For me, it meant standing in the middle of the rain.
To be quiet is to let our thoughts rest, to give our missions a moment to stand still. We all have places to be, people to tend to, things to check off the list.
God created the rain, and it does its job well to water the grass, the plants, and the flowers. That day it fell quietly, without a to-do list and without a thought of where exactly it was going to hit the earth. It was His creation, being just as He created it. We don’t have to tell the rain what to do. We get quiet, and we let it be.
My son stuck his hand out the door to feel the rain on his arms. His brother followed suit, because that’s what brothers do. For just a moment, all was quiet. The gravity of eternity was hitting me, and I knew that the Father had achieved what He was aiming for. To-do lists were quiet. Places and people and things were silent. All I could hear was the smile on His lips as I was enveloped in a moment of His creation being just as He created it. And that included me.
The Lord your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17
JANELLE DELAGRANGE 