Let It Rain

Tonight, on our way home from work, Jamie and I kept hearing radio announcements of a storm on the way.  We mostly ignored them.  After all, this is Texas, and they don't have rain here like we had in Virginia.  My daddy calls Virginia storms 'gullywashers'. They last for hours, they almost always have dramatic thunder and lightning, and they are completely wonderful. 

I love rain. Maybe it's the Irish and Scottish genes floating around in my DNA, but I've always loved weather that is generally considered 'bad' weather.  There is something about a rain coat and rubber rain boots, with a big happy umbrella that just makes me adventurous.  Or, alternatively, a really good rain storm is a perfect opportunity to 'opt out' for a while, curl up with a book and a cup of tea, and just stay inside and listen. 

There haven't been many of those days since we moved.  And I've sorely  missed them. 

But just as we got almost home, maybe 1/2 mile from our house, it started.  A drop here or there, not even sprinkling, so much as dripping!  But huge, FAT drops.....And after another couple blocks, some of the 'drops' would bounce on the pavement!  Hail starting.....By the time we got home, we pulled into the carport under a torrential downpour! Oh, glorious rain!!!

I sat inside listening for a while, then invited Jamie to come with me out on my porch swing.  Porches in Texas are made wide enough that the heat of the summer sun can never reach the house.  Centuries before air conditioning, it's all they had to cool their homes, and it's a very typical design feature, now.  My house is no different.  So we sat on the front porch, under the tin roof, listening to the rain.  We'd only been out there a few minutes when.....

Thunder! A huge flash of lightning lit up the entire sky in my front yard, bright as day, and then seconds later, the thunder came.  But it came in a way I have never heard before, and in a way I don't think I will ever get tired of!  Our house sits in a valley between to ridgelines of the Texas hill country.  So the thunder started on one end of the ridge, and rolled down the valley all the way to the other end of the ridge line!  And then echoed back!  I have heard the term rolling thunder, but in my life up to now, that only referred to drivers on a NASCAR track!!  This was literal and dramatic rolling. Thunder.  I was so awed, we stayed out there, by now getting quite cold, just so I could hear it one more time before we came in.  I know I will spend many nights out on my porch swing, listening to the thunder roll by. 

The plants needed the rain.  The tiny new little dogwoods and redbuds my family got me to remind me of Virginia need the rain.  The dry creekbed behind my house needs the rain.  But I needed the rain, too.  What a soothing sound for my soul.  What an absolute joy. 

I am reminded today of my very favorite Psalm, in experiencing the power and glory of the storm: 

O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth,
Who has set Your glory above the heavens!
2 From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength
Because of Your adversaries,
To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.

3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
4 What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?
5 Yet You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!
6 You make him to rule over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
7 All sheep and oxen,
And also the beasts of the field,
8 The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea,
Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

9 O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth!