The Rain

It was a Wednesday evening more than a month ago when the rain finally came. The heatwave that had swept across England was just about over, and the rain was long overdue. The air was clammy and hot when I felt the first, fat drops. We ran inside clutching as much as we could and beat the downpour by a mere second- the moment the door shut, the heavens opened and the rain began to fall from the sky quicker and quicker. 

It rained all night, the drops drumming against the skylight window outside my bedroom. It rained all of the next day too… and the next. Then finally, when everyone had had just about enough of the rain, it stopped. Saturday was humid and grey… but dry. 

That night when the rain first came, I stuck my head out of the loft window and felt the fat drops fall onto my cheeks and I thought about how there was nothing I could do to control the rain… about how it was completely out of my hands. I looked across my town, there were only houses upon houses for as far as I could see. Overhead I saw big grey clouds rolling in with more rain. There was something about that moment… something that made me realize just how weak and insignificant I was compared to the storm ahead.

There are often times in life where I feel just as weak and insignificant as I did in that moment. Things happen that are so far out of my hands and they remind me how I have so little control over so many things. Thinking like that can be daunting. We can feel helpless, like a tiny sailboat being tossed around between crashing waves. 

When I think back to that moment where I leaned out of the window and felt the rain land on my face, I remember how powerless I felt. But I remember too how calm I felt… not because I knew I was in control but because I knew the One who was. 

One of my favorite Bible stories from growing up in Sunday school is the one in Mark 4:35-41 where Jesus calms a storm. Jesus was out fishing with His disciples and He fell asleep on the boat. As He slept, a storm came up. The disciples were terrified, and they woke Jesus up and asked Him to do something. Mark 4:39 says, ‘He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.’

With a single sentence, Jesus calmed the raging wind and waves. He spoke… and it was done. Even a powerful storm… a force of nature… obeyed His voice! That is how powerful Jesus is! The disciples saw this too and in Mark 4:41 they said to each other, ‘“Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”’

I love thinking about how, just like Jesus was in complete control over the storm out on the lake, He was also in control over the rain as it began to fall that Wednesday evening. And not only is He in control over the literal storms we see but the storms of life too. 

In the same way that God was in control over that literal storm, He is in control over the storms of life. He is bigger than our battles, mightier than our mountains and greater than our giants. He knows tomorrow, He has a plan and He will not fail us. He can speak and watch it be done, with a mere touch He can heal the hurting. There is NO ONE more powerful than our God!

We’re merely human beings and because of that, I don’t think we’ll ever be able to fully comprehend just how powerful God is. But when, even only in our childlike ways, we simply acknowledge that He is not only far more powerful than we will ever know but also that there is no one or nothing more powerful than him, we can be filled with a sense of peace knowing that our lives rest in the hands of the All Powerful One. 

Trusting that God is in control doesn’t mean that our lives are suddenly going to be easy. It doesn’t mean things will automatically go smoothly or how even we want them to go. No, in fact, what God promises is far from that. In Psalm 23:4 the psalmist praises God for being beside him even through the difficult bits of life. He says ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.’ 

Although we know that trusting in God and His plan doesn’t mean our life will be easy or free from suffering, we can trust that He will be with us throughout the good and the bad. And above all, we can know that He is in control. 

Friends, I pray that we are able to find peace in the knowledge that God is in control over the storms of our lives, just as he is over the storms of lightning and thunder and rain.