{When the Rain Comes}

Perhaps it's the natural fact that it has rained so much here in the last few weeks.
The ground is just sodden with water and it doesn't seem to end.
Shower upon shower.  And I've felt a little house-bound and kid-crazy.

Or maybe it's just a desperate in my spirit.
The kind of downpour that you long to see end.
My heart feels waterlogged with the onslaught and heaviness of it,
Not so much the circumstances of my own life
But in those I love and am blessed to call a friend

What do you do when the river runs high
And the banks threaten to overflow,
Spilling all of the nasty contents onto those living around the rushing tide
When the flood of all that has gone wrong
And the constant of the dark clouds brim over and continually weep.

Start looking for the green.
On these days when the literal rain has poured down relentlessly
And, if I had a bottle to measure the rainfall, it would have needed to be emptied only to refill in the night,
This rain has brought an increased measure of green.
Like the green I've seen in pictures of Ireland.
And the moss grows rich on the trees.

So it is in my spirit, when the rainfall has been relentless
I purpose to begin looking for the green.  The newest growth.
The blessing in the mud puddles, so to speak.
Because, we all know, that just because the green is showing,
Doesn't mean that the puddles have dried and firmed.

And I go looking for the rainbow.
Some people are naturally inclined to see the glass half full.
I am not one.
But I have been blessed to know some.
And God has really been working it into my heart...
{like a soft cut of steak, with a rub worked into it, so that the flavor just pops out in the heat}
{That may well be one of the weirdest analogies I've ever had come across my imagination,
but it's what I see in my mind everytime I ask God to work something into my heart.  That pounding of the tenderizer, and then the hard rub of the seasonings and the marination, and utimately a flavor bursting forth after the flame has seared it all in}
That what I speak forth, is what becomes reality.
What I call out in others and myself,
Is the fruit I harvest tomorrow.
So when I'm full of the rain
And the despair threatens to brim over.
I'll find a quiet and call out that green to come forth

 Start actively looking for the color that springs after the storm
And speak to my soul that the clouds never hang so thick
That the sun will never shine again.

I will call out those things that are not,
As if they were.
I will make a choice to speak to my own circumstances
And those of the ones I love,
And bring out the richness of the soil that can only be had
After the rain has oversoaked the barren.
I will see the overflood as the chance to allow the Holy Spirit
To have glory moments and to be seen through the power we are given
As chosen and blessed daughters and sons of the Most Mighty King.
In the Spirit's Power I will prophesy the move of God over the storm.

And then rest in the waiting.
While He moves those things on earth to align with those in Heaven.
Amen.

JO