This morning when I got up I checked the hourly forecast for the day.  I wanted to finish up a few things I had started in my garden yesterday and I knew that rain was predicted for today.  The forecast predicted rain at 10am and thunderstorms at 11am.  I headed outdoors by 9am and had just mostly finished up when it started to rain.  I moved a few things up to the carport and worked under the protection of the roof.  It was still raining above me but the roof kept me from getting wet.  Sounds like a pretty common sense thing to do, right?  But today it hit me a little different.

God “maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” ( Matthew 5:45).   But just like I chose to use the roof to separate me from the rain falling from the sky, we have the ability to separate ourselves from God.  Like the rebellious young man in the parable of the Prodigal Son, he used his pride and love of self to separate him from God.  When we separate our spiritual lives from the rain of the Holy Spirit our spiritual lives stay dry…..just like I did under the roof of the carport.  I was in the presence of the rain, but chose to remain dry.  I was comfortable that way and it seemed like a wise choice.  But what if I would have acted like my five-year old and spent some time just dancing in the rain.

You see, she acted in her five-year-old-belief that God sent the rain just for her to play in.  Just for her to run around the raindrops, catch them on her tongue and jump into the puddles God had caused to gather simply so she could send great splashes of water all over me.  I’m sure she had a lot more fun than I did.  She put her whole heart into it as if she could hear music that made her toes dance.  It made me wonder how many things have I missed out on simply because I wanted to remain “comfortable and dry” instead of letting myself go and experience messy blessings (which is a topic for another post).  Our Father in heaven must have our whole heart as well.  A heart without fear, a heart full of the sweet innocence of a child, so eager to please their Father.  Dance in the rain to the music He plays just for you.