Under the Rain Clouds

Some think I live a charmed life, but it is not so. Our lives are as normal as the next person’s. We did do incredible and exciting things this summer. We saw all four of our children, their spouses, and all nine of our grandchildren—no small feat considering where they all live. But, I also looked deep within myself, and I didn’t like what I saw, a discovery made more perplexing because I didn’t know what to do about it.  And sometimes in the midst of the spectacular, a pall of sadness would settle in. Sometimes life is like walking under the edge of a storm cloud.

It rained this evening and I thought the storm had passed; but though the sun was shining when I stepped off the porch, it was still sprinkling. But, as the evening was waning, and I intended to walk an hour (and I’d just put on a second coat of nail polish that I wanted to dry as I walked), turning back just wasn’t an option.

Now, how can the sun also shine in the rain? I don’t know, but it can. As I entered the park, the clouds revealed a rainbow—not one of the spectacular ones we sometimes see, but a rainbow nonetheless. Clear run off gurgled through the drainage ditch—and I walked. And as I walked—across the park and up the hill—the rain and its rainbow melted back into the clouds. Eventually, a coolness washed off the strength-sapping heat of the day.

Maybe walking under the edge of a rain cloud can make us wiser and stronger. I hope so; God knows I need it.