Rain and rainbows

Rain, rain, go away! Come again another day.

It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring...

Why does rain get such a bad rap, anyway? What did rain ever do to us?!? Okay, so maybe it flooded the entire earth at one time and pretty much wiped out all of mankind, but come on. Let's not hold a grudge. That was thousands of years ago.

I happen to be one of the few people (it seems) that really enjoys rain. I love the smell of rain, I love the sound of rain, I love thunderstorms, I love to play in the rain! In fact, I have a location here in town where, every time it rains, I dream of standing there and letting the cars splash me with water when they pass by and hydroplane. I love it.

Growing up, my sister and brother and I would play outside when it rained. We had a game we would play where we would each color the end of a toothpick a different color and essentially set it in the water in the street and have races. I KNOW I won most of the time but somehow my bigger siblings (who usually bullied me out of my victories) claimed the win. Regardless of win to loss ratio, it's something I always remember when it starts to rain.

Sometimes when it rains, I think of a song my Mom used to sing to me. I like the whole song, but the phrase in the song that I love the most is talking about the name of Jesus being "like the fragrance after the rain." Sometimes when it rains, it reminds me of my golf tournaments that would get rained out when I was younger and how I would have to wait it out in the snack bar at the clubhouse. One of my favorite sounds of rain is in the car when the heavy drops pound on the windshield. Rain, in many ways, sums up my personality. Most people don't like it, most people would rather do without it, but when it stops raining, they're glad it was there for the time...

In the spring and late summer, I always look for rainbows after the rain. Rainbows remind me of the promise God made to never flood the earth again. Without light, rainbows wouldn't appear...a reminder that God's light brings forth beautiful things even in the midst of my dark and rainy times in life.

One of my favorite songs is by an ex-American Idol performer (who, in my opinion, should have won that season, but that's for another blog). Her name is LaToya London and the song is "How I Love The Rain". Check it out sometime if you have a chance, even if it's just the lyrics. Instead of letting rain ruin your days, let it be a reminder of something special in your life. Then when it comes, you won't be so inclined to sing the song to make it go away!