Another overcast day, a sky covered in layers of grays and purples, a sun smiling coyly behind her cloud covers, a magnificent rendering of a day’s ending hidden by Father Sky’s cigar smoke clouds. The day was damp and misty bringing on a heavier rain as a mystical twilight covered the horizon. No stars and no luminous moon to guide the night travelers tonight. Everyone is tucked in tightly, sleeping well in their soft covers of clouds.

Been reading a book of daily meditations this afternoon. Ran across a beautiful quote about hope by Emily Dickinson. “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.” Ever had worries or sadness that keeps sleep away, troubles that you don’t know how to handle. An Africa proverb reads “However long the night…the dawn will break.” The darkest nights do not last forever. These dark nights eventually give way to a glorious morning of hope when we have faith in a loving God. “God is the source of help in the darkest hours of the night.” We just have to reach out for his hand and the sun will rise. Aristotle Onassis wrote,“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”

I always think of grief as a path we walk in the darkness looking ahead for the light of God’s love. Those of us who have buried our children stumble down that path the rest of our lives. We eventually walk back out of the darkness into the sun but we’ll forever stumble over rocks and pebbles our grief throws on our path. I walk down that path holding God’s hand and he helps me up when I stumble. I hope my friends who have recently lost their loved one are finding peace through their prayers and comfort from their memories. Psalm 34:18 reads, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

The rain is playing a nighttime symphony, a lullaby of raindrops. I can hear the drops dripping from the roof, rustling through the bamboo fronds, dancing on the windowpanes. I know the bamboo forest is bent over as in prayer from the weight of the rain on their branches. An occasional lightning bolt lights the darkness giving way to the night’s thunder claps.

I love Langston Hughes’ words about rain. “Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.” Walt Disney said, “After the rain, the sun will reappear. There is life. After the pain, the joy will still be here.”

Biblical scripture uses rain as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. The earth needs rain to produce food just as we need the spiritual rain of God to grow and deepen our faith. The rain’s life giving water falls from the sky and nourishes the earth just as God’s grace and love flows from the heavens and feeds our souls with his Holy Light.

Close your eyes when it rains and listen to the rain sing God’s lullaby.

“Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.” — John Updike