In the middle of the ocean, I was standing over a sink brushing my teeth when my aunt walked into our cabin to gather me to go to do something. I opened the door and went back to finish brushing. She was standing outside the bathroom door talking to others in the room, while I stood over the sink, water running, brushing my teeth.
She giggled and asked "Do you always brush your teeth with the water running?" and I smiled and in a sassy way replied, "We're in the middle of the ocean" and I laughed. The look she had connected with me and let me know, she wasn't being funny. She looked at me seriously, not accusingly or anything.
That moment has stuck with me all these years later.
I am far more intentional now when using water. I don't let it just run when I brush, I turn it on and off. I don't wash my car and let the hose run in the drive, I don't run water in the sink for no reason when cleaning the kitchen.
This morning I was studying about the favor of God.
I was thinking about how when it's colder out, let's say with snow, I think to myself, oh there's plenty of moisture or water and I'm less mindful. Oh a rainy day, I don't think as intently about water.
As I was intentional this morning in receiving the message, it became clear God was speaking to me, as rain is predicted for today.
It made me pause and think about when God brings rain in my life, and how I utilize it. Oftentimes in life, the rains come and we aren't excited about it. We don't like the rain because in the rain we must pause. It often brings clouds, cold, and dampness which most of us would agree we don't like.
However, sometimes when the rains come we are good with it because it's been a long time in-between rains. It's been a long time since we've had to stop and be present at the moment and not move so quickly onto the next things. Sometimes the rain causes us to stop and wait. oh, Thank you, Lord.
And if you are like my husband and me, there are times when we are so grateful to receive the rain, for our fields. Sometimes, however, we freak out because the rain is not good in the fields and it is in these times we must lean deeper into prayer. Rain is something we pray for, however, sometimes it comes at times when we do not want it.
God is so awesome!
We do not get to pick and choose when the rain comes into our lives, what we do have and what we are capable of, is how we receive the rain. Will we see the rain and prepare for it, or will we see the rain coming and waste it?
I was brushing my teeth, water running over a sink because I was in the middle of the ocean and felt as those it was not necessary to be concerned.
God brings rain into my life, as a reminder, Yes, there is enough, however, we must not become dependent on what we see. I was brushing my teeth, over a sink, with water, provided from a tank on the cruise ship, it was not water from the ocean. That water, from the tank, it indeed could run out.
WHOA! Do you see what He is doing? Sometimes when the rain comes, we only see the rain. We do not see what is being watered in the season, what is being stored up. We only see what we are in, at the moment. God is so amazing.
When the rains come, know this. He brings it for our favor. He brings it to grow us, to provide for us, to remind us, to share with us in our storms. God is so very good, He is so good.
Rain is a process for growth. Rain is necessary for God's promises to be unfolded.
I may have been "only" brushing my teeth, however, all those years ago, God saw me at this moment embracing the rain. Opening my heart to receive rain I did not see coming, opening my arms to welcome rain I did not pray for, knowing He will do a good good thing with it. He prepared my heart then for today, knowing I would see storms, I would see rain and in all of it, I would see Jesus.
Today, as I look at the weather app and see rain is coming, I smile and I whisper, Jesus, I receive the rain. I know Your presence is not void, Your word is not just a word. Your almighty, You are full of life, full of rain.
You are Lord and You bring rain, not to hurt or to burden, you bring rain to remind us, in the rain the seed becomes stronger and grows deeper roots. In You, our roots are firmly planted when we ask Your favor over our rain.
"As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,"
Isaiah 55:10