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“Sing to the LORD with grateful praise; make music to our God on the harp. He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills.” Psalm 147:7 New International Version

The average rainfall in Colorado Springs is sixteen inches a year. That’s the number ONE then SIX, not SIX then ONE. We’re nearly halfway through the year and we’ve already received over thirteen inches of moisture, and guess what, it’s raining as I write this blog. Ugh! Come December 31 that total might actually read 61. Another Ugh!

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Yet, how quickly we forget what happens when there’s drought. A few years ago Colorado Springs was hit with two massive fires that affect many lives and destroyed trees that I will not see recover in my lifetime. Yes, the rain has also come with a price in flash flooding and in waterlogged basements. It takes its toll on our mental health. If we lived in a perfect world we’d receive sixteen inches of moisture every year at just the right time, but we don’t.

We humans have a way of seeing the bad in the good, don’t we? There is a little bit of Eeyore in all of us as our inner voice groans, “It’s going to rain.”

The psalmist reminds us that it is God who covers the sky with his clouds, and it is God who sends the rain making the grass green, and boy is the grass green this year. The psalmist can’t help but sing with a grateful heart for God’s provision because there’s the hope of green grass.

It might be “raining” in your life. You might feel soaked to the bone with struggles, pain and unresolved conflict, and find yourself questioning whether anything good can come out of all this toil. Hope is a powerful gift when it seems that life is filled with raindrops. The psalmist looked beyond the clouds and rain to see the green grass that comes as a result their presence.

Jesus felt the weight of this “rain” on the cross. He knows suffering, pain and conflict as he was rejected, beaten and hung on his cross. His despair is our hope. His abandonment is our security. His death is our life.

May God also fill you with hope in the midst of your rain. May you see see the green grass of Christ’s victory when all you feel is the rain of sorrow.

Copyright Douglas P. Brauner