Rain & Snow

It doesn't seem to matter what form it falls in, people around here are glad for any kind of precipitation. I exaggerate a little; there are many who have had enough of the snow and are ready for spring. But for the sake of the community and their livelihood, they are glad for the moisture. And you would be too, if you lived in a farming community.
As a poetic device, rain and snow seem to have a multitude of faces. Rain can be dark, cold, oppressive, sorrowful, and sinister. Snow can be an obstacle, frigid, and deadly. Each of them can come in storms that are dangerous and threaten life--or at least our way of life. In the Bible rain was used to judge the world and destroy all mankind as it had come to exist.
The clouds can be lugubrious, ominous, depressing, and foreboding.
Yet there is still another side to these elements. Snow evokes memories of playful youth and innocence, of winter holidays, of family, friends, and cheer. Few things convey the image of purity and a fresh beginning as a blanket of new-fallen snow. Even in its frigid state we give it a warm feeling simply by describing snow as a "blanket." Rain brings life; providing moisture for the land and all its vegetation. Rain becomes brooks, become streams, become rivers. Rivers quench thirst, generate power, shape geography, and thereby shape society. Rain refreshes, restores, reshapes, and cleanses.
All this to say, there are a lot of ways one can look at the cats and dogs falling from the sky (a strange image, and now that I think about it I'm not sure it makes any sense). Living in a farming community has helped me to realize how important--even when inconvenient--all that precipitation is. Any scientist worth his sodium chloride will tell you that life cannot exist without water. Yet somehow in our world of convenience we have become mentally disconnected from the sources of our very livelihood. We don't know how our food grows, we don't know where our meat comes from, and we don't know how precious water is. There are children in Africa who may not have a kindergarten level education, but they know how important water is. Yet if we in our abundance find the rain or snow to be an inconvenience, we vilify and curse the elements.
What are the elements in and of themselves? Does the rain decide which banks to flood? Does the snow choose which roads to block? Do the clouds hone in on your house for their dumping ground? They are but matter; pieces of a greater whole; props in a fantastic drama produced and directed by the great author. When we curse the elements, do we not grumble against the one who commands them? Do you think that the Lord does not consider all things (including our petty plans) as he orchestrates the workings of the universe? And yet it still rains on our parades. So maybe, just maybe He has a very good reason for doing so.
"For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matt. 5:45). Rain happens. It can bring blessing, or difficulty, but it is there for a reason. It may have nothing to do with me...directly. It may be there to set me straight. It might even be there to bless me in some way I cannot perceive. When it comes I have a choice to make: to complain against the rain, or thank God for his provision--in the rain and in all other areas of my life. I can choose to change my perspective, knowing that the Lord who created and directs the Universe is the Lord who loves and looks after me...even in the storms.