Rain!

It's raining. The steady patter of the rain makes me feel cozy as the sky darkens with the approach of night. I made soup for dinner. That's always a great meal for a rainy night. But we live on a tropical island at sea-level, so it's not cold. I had to turn on the air-condition in the dining room so that we wouldn't sweat while eating the hot dinner. We don't usually turn on the air-conditioner downstairs unless we have guests. Electricity here is expensive, so we try to use the ACs and our clothes dryer sparingly.

I never get tired of rain. I think it's because of two things.

First I have great memories of rain as a child. I supposed the wet season was more irritating for my parents. There were always leaks in our roof and the day after a rain, Dad would have to get the ladder and go up on the roof to fix the leaks. Mom would gather all the buckets and pots we'd used the night before to catch the drops falling from the ceiling. I suppose she might have tired of having to wash the pots every time. The other problem was that the rain often knocked out the electricity. I remember spending evenings sitting on our front porch watching the rain in the dark. Sometimes we'd light candles all through the house. We'd joke that just about the time we got all the candles lit, the lights would come back on. The other thing we had to do as soon as the electricity cut off was run to the kitchen and unplug the fridge. When the lights came back on, the electricity would surge through the house at high power for a couple of seconds. We didn't want to lose our fridge in the spurt of power. Good times! Great memories!

The second reason I love rain is because we lived in the desert for so many years. Rain was infrequent to say the least. When it did come, it was not refreshing. It dredged up the muck and stinky-ness of the city and the lack of drainage left countless roads covered in chocolate milk colored water for days. Not pleasant. When we moved back to Asia and had our first rain I thought, "Ahhhh! This is why I love rain!" I love the rain in Asia because it is refreshing.

I know it's hard to get out and go places when it's raining. I know it is gross to have the bottom of your jeans damp all day. I know. But still, I like it.

"I know that the Lord is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths. He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses."
Psalm 135:5-7