Sitting in a coffee shop, relaxing with a book and a delicious latte I couldn't help but notice as I looked out the window that it was raining sideways. For those of you who have spent any time with me know that Forrest Gump is one of my favorite movies. And one of my favorite parts is when Forrest is describing all of the different types of rain in Vietnam. "One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath." It makes me laugh every time!
Ok, back to real life... It's the middle of summer and it's been over one hundred degrees forty days or something insane like that in the past two months. But for some reason as I watched this rain I had that feeling of an early fall day; the crisp and sometimes first bitter cold of the year kind of day. In that moment I was overwhelmed with how the love of Jesus is like that moment you step in from that cold. Your bones begin to warm back up and your teeth begin to stop chattering. The "I'm frozededed" feeling wears off and you can look out, almost in spite and say, "oh bitter enemy, you have lost your sting. I am warm. I am safe..."
Jesus, you have saved me from the little bitty stingin' rain... and the big ol' fat rain. The rain that flew in sideways. And the rain that sometimes even seemed to come straight up from underneath.
When the rain comes again, and it will, we are safe with you...
