The Beggar's Blog

Grace Like Rain

It is raining at my house today. Rain in Northern California is always coupled with crisp air. It is beautiful. I decided to take a run in the rain this morning. The rain fell gently on my skin as I ran down the street (I think it was trying to snow actually). But when it rains, it gets me thinking about worship songs that include rain in them. They are typified by using rain to describe God’s Spirit falling down on his church, God’s love raining down or in other cases, like the description I want to focus on, grace falling down. Returning to the run, rain was lightly splashing me in the face. I was thankful that it wasn’t raining too hard. When I had longer hair in my younger years, running in pouring rain meant that my hair was going to slap me in the face every step. I began singing the Todd Agnew song, Grace Like Rain, in my head but it got me thinking, why do we like to connect grace and rain in Christianity?

I have typically connected grace and rain with cleansing. While I believe that this is one aspect that we can look at, I believe that there are more Biblical ways we can understand the connection between grace and rain.

1. Rain is not controlled by man nor does man deserve it.

Clouds roll onto land to provide water. It is out of man’s control when the rain will come and how long it will last. Man cannot do a dance or call the rain to come when he needs it. Rain is completely in the Creator’s hands. He directs where the clouds will go. As seen in Scripture, God can withhold rain from a land for years. Rain is a blessing from God and from his hand alone. It is the same with grace. Grace can only come from God, and it is up to him when and where he will give it. It is a free gift that we must accept with humility. We must understand that we cannot produce grace in and of ourselves. We do not deserve it. It must come from God. Oh, but how wonderful it is when the rain comes!

When rain comes it causes crops to grow. We need grace in our lives for spiritual growth. It is only grace raining from the hand of God and the cultivation of our hearts by the Spirit that will bear fruit in our hearts.

2. Rain only comes on a cloudy day.

With these thoughts on rain, it also got me thinking about the circumstances surrounding a rainy day. It can only rain when there are clouds in the sky. However, it does not always rain when there are clouds in the sky. You can probably see where I am going with this. It does not rain when it is sunny outside.When we are going through times of spiritual darkness, it seems like we will never see the sun. Clouds hover overhead and we cannot see a ray of sunshine in sight. But understand, rain only comes when it is cloudy. If we are continuing this connection between grace and rain. Grace will fall like rain on cloudy days, but only by the hand of God. Grace is out of our hands. And yes, grace will come and nourish our souls, and cleanse us, but it will remind us that God is in control and he is sovereign even over our cloudy days, weeks and years. He knows when we need rain.

I am not saying that God only gives grace on cloudy days, but I believe that there is a connection to be made.

So as I completed my run today, I became thankful for rain in different ways. Hopefully next time I sing a song in church about God providing in some way with rain, I can worship him with a greater knowledge of who he is.

June Plans… 9 states in 18 days

After graduation, I get to simply have a great time in the month of June with friends and family. 

Zach and I are road tripping up the coast of California, Oregon and Washington with the final destination of Seattle so we can celebrate the graduation of Matt. Hopefully we can catch some surf, amazing coffee and meet extraordinary people in the process. 

I fly out of Seattle on the 11th for Houston, TX to meet up with my parents. From there we will be traveling to Louisiana to visit my aunt and uncle for a few days in Lake Charles. We will then be driving along the gulf coast in order to make it to another family reunion in Pensacola, FL. While its not yet completely set in stone, I am pretty sure we are going to be travelling to “Hot”lanta as well before returning home to Northern California. 

It will be an amazing trip! While it does not compare with backpacking across Europe after graduation, it will be an incredible time with friends and family while experiencing polar opposites of American culture.